IT USED to take Mr Melvin Goh a week to close a business deal. Not surprising really, as the 51-year-old is in the business of selling Lamborghinis, Italian-made hot wheels that cost about a million dollars each.

But over the last two years, sales at his Teban Gardens showroom have accelerated as impressively as the sports cars themselves. "Selling a car in one to three hours is not that unusual these days," says Lamborghini Singapore's managing director. 

Yes, the big spenders are on the move, roaring engines and all. Sociologist Terence Chong puts it more prosaically: "There certainly seems to be more conspicuous consumption."

Singapore is home to the fastest-growing population of high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific, according to a report last week by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The rich - defined as people with more than US$1 million (S$1.45 million) in financial holdings excluding their first house - rose 21.2 per cent last year to about 67,000.

Says finance professor Francis Koh of the Singapore Management University: "The profile of the wealthy is changing, the wealth is filtering to younger people.

"We can also see visible signs that the rich are starting to enjoy more material things. They now have more interesting desires - fancier watches, cars and even art."

According to conventional wisdom, one reason that Singapore has been spared the tensions of class simmering present in many other countries is because its rich here have been relatively self-restrained, eschewing vulgar displays of wealth.

The Government, for its part, has tried to keep things that way, seeking to set the tone of society against the shameless flaunting of one's spending power.

As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned in a swearing-in speech after the polls last year: "If we let the politics of envy drive a wedge between us, our society will be destroyed and all will suffer. That must never happen."

The question is whether as more enter the ranks of the rich, and enjoy the taste of newfound wealth, they will be willing to stick by the unwritten rules of circumspection. Or will they say, "if you have it, why not flaunt it?"

Will this provoke a "push-back" from those who have less, thereby straining Singapore's social fabric? Given a widening income gap, will the Government increasingly face the need to manage the tensions arising from the politics of envy?

Cars, caviar, Jimmy Choos

FIRST, a look at the lifestyles of the rich. Experts and high-end retailers observe that the rich are not only more willing to spend these days, but want to be seen doing so.

"The new generation is not so shy to flaunt the fact that they are rich. They don't mind showing people they've arrived," says Mr Goh. "For the older generation, if you ask them to buy a car that costs between $850,000 and $1.3 million, they will say "Over my dead body". They'd rather buy a condominium for that money and earn rent. Now, it's different."

Sales of the Lamborghini Gallardo, which costs about $850,000, have nearly doubled since 2004, from 19 to an expected 37 this year.

Jimmy Choo shoes, which cost an average of $1,200 a pair, are striding their way to double-digit sales growth here.

Top jewellers Bulgari and Cartier too sparkled from double-digit growth in sales of haute jewellery in the last five years.

When specialist watch retailer Hour Glass had its Tempus fair recently, 50,000 people registered to attend. Most of the timepieces were priced at between $5,000 and a million. "The most expensive we had was $4 million," says Hour Glass executive vice-chairman Jannie Tay.

The big spenders are not stinting on food, either. Mr Roberto Galetti, owner and chef of Italian restaurant Garibaldi, tells Insight that he has cooked five orders of the top grade $580 caviar, served with risotto, since putting it on the menu last month. "My turnover four years ago was half what it is now," he says, and this is in spite of stiffer competition from other high-end restaurants.

National University of Singapore (NUS) sociologist Chua Beng Huat waxes philosophical about the trend: "What would be the point of wealth if it does not increase consumption and better material life?"

He challenges the notion that such willingness to spend equates with showing off.

"Zegna clothes are not just expensive but also of superior quality; incidentally, few people would know if one is wearing Zegna or any other label, if one does not show and tell," he says. Conversely, he argues, one can be a show-off even if one buys budget clothes from heartland retailer, This Fashion.

Rolling good times

THE simplest explanation for this surge in conspicuous consumption is that the economy is booming.

Says Dr Chong, who is with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies: "The economic boom is cyclical, and surges in materialism and conspicuous consumption always accompany it."

But there are other factors. For one, Singapore is a far safer place now for those with money to let others know that they do. Eye surgeon Geh Min, granddaughter of the late rubber and pineapple tycoon Lee Kong Chian, remembers the 1950s and 60s when kidnapping was common.

"To flaunt your wealth was asking for trouble. Lots of people had bodyguards," says the 57-year-old former Nominated MP, adding wryly that the guards were only for sons. "Daughters like myself were not worth much," she adds with a laugh.

Luxury consumption is probably also being boosted by tourist spending, says Dr Chong. Indeed, Singapore has had record tourist numbers in the last three months, with the Chinese and Russians joining the Indonesians as the big spenders.

The Chinese, in particular, are making waves. Over a million of them were here last year, and shopping made up almost 60 per cent of their spending, mostly on branded watches, jewellery, bags and cosmetics.

With professionals snapping up Gucci bags and cruising in BMW 3-series, the rich needs to move a notch up to show that they are, well, the rich.

As NUS sociologist Tan Ern Ser says: "Whatever rich people spend on to show off have to be able to differentiate them from the 'middle class' masses."

Prof Chua adds: "Consumption is always about status and always comparative. So, yes, these days the rich, if they want to display their wealth, would have to live in bungalows and drive Bentleys."

Dr Geh also argues that this conspicuous consumption is driven by increased advertising, which she believes "warps the value of a lot of possessions".

"I have heard of people who say that they must have certain things because otherwise others won't think that they are successful," she says. "All this talk of retail therapy tells us that we deserve it. If you have a bad day, you deserve some retail therapy. If you have done well, you deserve it too. It's a great formula for advertisers - up or down, you reward yourself."

Old money v new rich

WHILE stories abound of old-style tycoons who scrimped and saved - like Lee Kong Chian who used to wear shirts with holes - one refrain is that the new rich of today seem to be less frugal.

But sociologists argue that the more conspicuous spending of today must be measured against contemporary socio-economic conditions.

"In the 1950s when ownership of cars was rare, owning a small car was a show of wealth, when the rest of the society was on bicycles, buses and foot," says Prof Chua.

"I have never thought that 'being frugal' was something intrinsic of any generation; when you don't have the money, you will be frugal, although old people who lived through poverty like to make a virtue of necessity. If they had the wealth of today's Singapore, would they still be as 'frugal' as they were?"

Associate Professor Tan believes that what has changed now is the form and not the substance. "Maybe instead of Porsche and Lamborghini, expensive wines, and girlfriends, it was villas by the sea, Rolls Royce, travel to Europe and America, garden parties, and official concubines."

Dr Tay says that it is a matter of perception. "The older generation also spends but there were less of them so it's not so noticeable. Now there is more wealth and more people." But others, like Dr Chong, disagree and argue that Singapore has a more 'consumerist culture' than before, with more lifestyle choices and Singaporeans have a wider array of luxury goods to, well, luxuriate over.

Says St James Power Station chief executive officer Dennis Foo: "There are not many of the old rich around. People know them, people of their generation know them and I guess you don't need to go around showing people you are rich.

"Today, there are many nouveau riche and you can see some of them from the way they talk, or they spend money unnecessarily that they are flaunting."

He also believes, along with Dr Geh,that there was a greater emphasis on thrift in the past, as the older tycoons were once poor and knew that lady luck could be capricious and overnight fortunes made could become fortunes lost.

It is, of course, a generalisation. Even today, there are very understated tycoons such as billionaire Zhong Sheng Jian of Yanlord and, who was little known until Forbes magazine ranked him as Singapore's fourth richest man earlier this year.

Is S'pore for the rich?

THE more ostentatious displays of wealth here would obviously have an impact on social cohesion.

An obvious way to minimise social imbalance, suggests Prof Koh, is for the rich to show their wealth through philanthropy. Their repayment to the society that helped put them at the top would heal any rifts that could emerge.

Dr Geh, who is the president of the Nature Society of Singapore, has a more radical suggestion: have differential energy pricing for those who opt for a more lavish lifestyle. "If you want to have 20 rooms, a wine cellar and a fountain, you should not be paying the same rates as the five-room flats," she says.

Already, there are perceptions forming that the rich get away with more.

As an NUS student asked PM Lee in a dialogue last month at Kent Ridge: "Is Singapore becoming a place for the rich?"

The student feared being squeezed out and Mr Lee said the country cannot possibly be for the rich, or the ruling party would lose elections - as there were not enough rich people to vote it in: "Singapore has to be a place where the vast majority of Singaporeans will enjoy a high quality of life, and be able to have jobs, where you can earn well and do well for yourself."

With the income gap widening, as shown by the increase in the Gini coefficient - a measure of income distribution of between zero and 1 - from 0.468 in 2005 to 0.472 last year, a showy rich populace could portend social cleavages and political implications.

"When wealth is so closely related to personal worth, those in the lower middle or working class are inevitably going to become insecure and frustrated. How these insecurities and frustrations play out will depend on the political issues of the day," says Dr Chong.

The Government would have to keep an eagle eye on any hint of politics of envy taking root. When that happens, the People's Action Party - elected 12 consecutive times since 1959 largely based on its economic record and ability to deliver the good life to Singaporeans - could be facing an electorate that has a roof, but nevertheless sore that it does not come with the chandeliers they see in the homes of the better off.

Society too will have to play its part, in how it responds to the flagrant showing off of wealth. The nouveau riche, seeking to spend their way to acceptance and recognition, might decide it is not worth their while if those they are trying to impress are put off by their excesses.

While to get rich may indeed be glorious, as the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said, it can also give rise to a whole lot of problems.

Economist Adam Smith said: "With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches." Singapore, if it wants to maintain its cohesiveness, should probably beg to differ.

» As economy booms, will the rich keep up restraint?