Asset Management Survey 2025: S$6.7 trillion, 1,406 VCCs — and a cooler alternatives market
MAS's annual survey of the industry landed in late July, and the end-2025 numbers tell two stories at once. The headline is strength: assets up 10.1% to S$6.7 trillion, net inflows up 30%, and the VCC compounding faster than the industry around it. The subplot is a genuine shift: after years of double-digit growth, alternatives went flat. Here is what the data actually says — and what it means if you are choosing where to domicile a fund.
Update — 19 August 2026: weeks after this survey landed, MAS moved on the competitive gap it highlights — announcing a tax exemption on a share of fund managers’ performance profits, a hedge fund anchoring programme and wider ONE Pass access. Our breakdown of the 19 August announcement.
The short answer
The Singapore Asset Management Survey 2025 — MAS's annual census of the industry, covering the year to 31 December 2025 — shows total assets under management rising 10.1% to S$6.7 trillion, powered by net inflows of S$376 billion, up around 30% on the year. The VCC keeps outgrowing its host industry: 1,406 vehicles incorporated or re-domiciled by year-end, holding 3,443 sub-funds, with more than half of all MAS-regulated fund managers now running at least one. The surprise is in the mix: alternatives grew just 0.4%, against 14% the year before, while traditional listed strategies did the heavy lifting.
The headline: inflows did the work
A 10.1% AUM year can be manufactured by markets alone; this one was not. Net inflows of S$376 billion — up from S$290 billion in 2024 — mean new money chose Singapore at an accelerating rate, on top of market performance. The gateway pattern the survey has shown for years held firm: roughly 76% of AUM is sourced from outside Singapore and around 88% is invested outside Singapore, most of it into Asia-Pacific. Money comes to Singapore to be managed, not to stay: about 39% of it originates from Asia-Pacific outside Singapore, about 24% domestically, and roughly 15% from North America.
The policy tailwind is visible too. At Budget 2026 the equity-market development programme was topped up from S$5 billion to S$6.5 billion, GST remission for qualifying funds was extended to end-2029, and the financial-sector withholding-tax exemptions ran out to 2031 — the kind of unglamorous continuity that compounds into the inflow line.
The VCC numbers: adoption is now the default
Six years after launch, the VCC's trajectory has settled into something close to infrastructure:
| Measure | End-2024 | End-2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| VCCs incorporated or re-domiciled | ~1,200 | 1,406 | +17% |
| Sub-funds | 2,695 | 3,443 | +28% |
| Sub-funds per umbrella (avg.) | ~2.2 | ~2.4 | rising |
| Regulated managers running a VCC | 628 | >50% of all FMCs | majority |
The detail worth noticing is that sub-funds grew faster than umbrellas — 28% against 17%. Managers are not just incorporating new vehicles; they are stacking additional strategies, share classes and client mandates onto umbrellas they already run, which is exactly the platform economics the structure was designed for. Each incremental sub-fund shares the umbrella's board, administrator and auditor while staying statutorily ring-fenced. By strategy, the 2024 survey's split — roughly 40% private equity and venture capital, 22% EAM and multi-family-office structures, 19% hedge funds — remains the best public map of who uses the vehicle.
The subplot: alternatives went flat
Now the less comfortable number. Alternatives AUM grew 0.4% in 2025 — effectively flat — after growing 14% in 2024. Within the aggregate: hedge funds and REITs advanced, private equity and venture capital declined (concentrated in one large manager's downsizing rather than broad outflows, with new manager inflows partly offsetting), and real estate slipped again. Traditional strategies — listed equities and bonds — grew about 9% and did the year's heavy lifting.
Three honest readings. First, this is a global story, not a Singapore one: private-market fundraising cooled everywhere in 2025–26, exits stayed hard, and Asia-Pacific private-credit fundraising fell outright in the first half of 2026. Second, concentration cuts both ways — a single large manager downsizing can swing the whole PE/VC line, which tells you the line is lumpy, not that the ecosystem is retreating. Third, the structural indicators kept moving the other way: VCC formation, sub-fund stacking and manager registrations all grew through the same year. Vehicles are a leading indicator of intent; AUM is a lagging record of markets.
Still, the era in which alternatives mechanically outgrew everything else has cooled, and content that assumes otherwise is out of date. Managers raising in 2026 are doing so into a more selective market — which tends to reward exactly the things Singapore's stack offers: credible domicile, tax certainty under 13O/13U, and a structure that lets a manager launch a strategy as a sub-fund without a new entity each time.
What it means if you are structuring a fund now
- The domicile question keeps resolving toward Singapore. S$376 billion of net inflows and a majority of regulated managers on the VCC platform is the kind of liquidity-of-ecosystem argument that no brochure can manufacture. Service providers, banks and administrators now treat the VCC as the default wrapper, which shows up as speed and cost.
- Umbrella economics are the proven pattern. The 28% sub-fund growth says the marginal launch in Singapore is increasingly a sub-fund, not a company. If you expect to run more than one strategy or client mandate, start with the umbrella.
- Flat alternatives ≠ closed window. Hedge funds grew, credit strategies keep forming, and the PE/VC dip is concentrated. But allocators are pickier; the marketing edge shifts to governance, substance and clean structure — the boring things the survey's compliance-minded regulator rewards too.
- Benchmark your own numbers. If your deck still cites S$6.07 trillion, 1,200 VCCs or 2,695 sub-funds, it is a year stale. The current citable set: S$6.7T / S$376B / 1,406 / 3,443.
The longer arc
Five surveys ago, the VCC was an experiment with a few hundred adopters; the 2025 edition records it as the majority practice of a S$6.7 trillion industry. The through-line across those years is that Singapore's growth has come from plumbing — vehicles, tax certainty, licensing clarity, and now retail-access and tokenisation frameworks in the pipeline — rather than from any single hot asset class. A flat alternatives year does not dent that logic; if anything, it demonstrates it: the money kept coming anyway. Our 2024 survey breakdown remains available for the prior-year baseline, and our VCC adoption tracker follows the vehicle counts between surveys.
Deciding where to domicile your next fund?
Tell us your strategy, target investors and timeline. We'll walk you through what the current data means for your structure — standalone or umbrella, open- or closed-ended, and how the 13O or 13U exemption applies — and connect you with MAS-licensed CMS fund managers where it fits.
Speak to a specialist →What is Singapore's total assets under management in 2025?
S$6.7 trillion as at end-2025, per the MAS Singapore Asset Management Survey 2025 — up 10.1% from S$6.07 trillion a year earlier. Net inflows rose about 30% to S$376 billion. Roughly three-quarters of the AUM is sourced from outside Singapore and the large majority is invested outside Singapore, confirming the industry's role as a global gateway rather than a domestic market.
How many VCCs are there in Singapore?
1,406 VCCs had been incorporated or re-domiciled in Singapore as at end-2025, holding 3,443 sub-funds — up from roughly 1,200 VCCs and 2,695 sub-funds at end-2024. More than half of MAS-regulated fund management companies now manage at least one VCC.
Which strategies grew fastest in 2025?
Traditional strategies. Listed equities and bonds grew roughly 9% on strong markets and inflows, while alternatives as a whole grew only about 0.4% — hedge funds and REITs advanced, but private equity and venture capital AUM declined as one large manager downsized, and real estate slipped. It is a reversal of 2024, when alternatives (+14%) comfortably outpaced traditional strategies.
Does the survey mean private markets in Singapore are shrinking?
No — it means growth paused. The PE/VC decline was concentrated in one large manager's downsizing rather than broad-based outflows, new manager registrations continued, and structural flows into the VCC (a vehicle used heavily by PE/VC, hedge funds and family offices) kept compounding: sub-funds grew 28% in the year. But the era of automatic double-digit alternatives growth has clearly cooled.
Where does the money managed in Singapore come from?
Per the 2025 survey, about 39% of AUM is sourced from Asia-Pacific outside Singapore, roughly 24% from Singapore itself, and about 15% from North America, with the balance from Europe and elsewhere. Around 88% of the money is invested outside Singapore, most of it into Asia-Pacific — the classic gateway pattern.