If you’re the type of person who enjoys the look of Smeg shelves that bow under the weight of Voss bottles; has calculated the cost of restoring a recently purchased El Greco; 

 to be the fount of all grooming knowledge, then an ogle at Sir James Dyson’s Singapore megahome might make you think it’s time for your Knight Frank agent to pull his finger out.

Little over a year since Dyson signed a 99-year lease to his £43 million triplex penthouse — which, at the time of his purchase, became Singapore’s most expensive — it has been reported that the vacuum-cleaner billionaire is ready to call in the movers, having accepted an offer of £36 million from US-based magnate Leo Koguan, co-founder and chairman of IT provider SHI International.

At current exchange rates, the inventor behind appliance firm Dyson – whose line of hairdryers, air purifiers and bagless vacuum cleaners has often become subject of housewife haiku — is set to make a loss of approximately £7 million on the sale. Reasons for the notable drop in value have not been confirmed, but it would be a safe bet that Dyson’s Monzo overdraft won’t be stretched to its limits just yet, with the 73-year-old having topped 

 Rich List for the first time in May, thanks to an amassed £16.2 billion net worth.

Stationed within the Tanjong Pagar neighbourhood on Singapore’s southern side, and jimmied into the top three floors of the 64-storey Guoco Tower — heralded as the city-state’s tallest skyscraper on completion in 2016 — Dyson’s five-bed unit looks like the sort of place a mid-level Accenture associate can only dog-ear in his first-time buyer’s pamphlet. It is a home whose 12-metre pool postures in much the same way that a bottle of Aesop does in a five-star bathroom.

If you should ever find yourself in this super penthouse — which is, in jargonese, the biggest ‘non-landed residence’ in Singapore, at 21,000 sq ft — you will see chandeliers and marble floors by the bushel; you’ll be able to request the 24-hour butler service to fetch your yacht; and you will poke your head around a ‘wet kitchen’ whose amenities suggest an owner of chefly ambition.

The 600-bottle wine cellar would not be out of place at the home of a 17th-century Tuscan earl; the walk-in wardrobe looks adequate enough to seat the entire West End cast of 

. And, if you’re keeping score, views of the cityscape, most notably of the Marina Bay waterfront area, can be gawked at through the glass walls or on the rooftop deck. The luxe trappings are all there, set up in a way that nicely offsets Dyson’s stately 18th-century manor house in Dodington Park, Gloucestershire, whose ground includes orangeries and a Grecian portico. Dyson — or his advisor — certainly has a decent eye.

Prior to Dyson’s acquisition of the Singapore pad, in July 2019, it had a reported S$100 million price tag. The eventual cost — nearly one-third less than the original figure demanded by GuocoLand, the building’s developer — broke the record fee spent on a Singapore home. That was previously set by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who shelled out $44 million for a 10,300 sq ft super-penthouse at Sculptura Ardmore, two years prior.

Dyson’s decision to take up residency in Singapore came months after his eponymous enterprise announced, in January 2019, that it was to uproot its head office from Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, to the city-state. Later that year, the company also scrapped plans to build an emissions-free automobile, which was to roll off production lines in Singapore. Despite Dyson’s claims that his engineers had developed a “fantastic electric car”, the £2.5 billion project was deemed not “commercially viable” last October, as no suitable buyer for the division was found — and £500 million was squandered in the process.

An outspoken Brexiteer and a no-deal backer, Dyson’s venture to another continent drew in accusations that he was fleeing the UK’s political and economic storm by pulling the plug on investing in domestic manufacturing. Labour MP Wes Streeting saw it as an act of “rank hypocrisy”. And earlier this month, the tech magnate faced fresh questions over his move away from Britain, on Radio 4’s Today programme.

“I haven’t gone, I’m here. I visit and I have a house there. But we’re expanding here in Britain,” he said. “We’re taking over Hullavington Airfield, we’re doing up the hangars there and we’re a British company.”

Since its move to Singapore, the firm has stated that its decision was not related to issues of Brexit or tax, with chief executive Jim Rowan adding: “It’s to make us future-proof for where we see the biggest opportunities.”

In reply to our questions on why Sir James recently decided to sell his penthouse, and whether or not the business plans to shift focus outside of Singapore, a Dyson spokesperson declined comment.

But, despite the sale of Dyson’s super-luxe digs, one can probably assume that he won’t be moving HQ any time soon — because, although most of his products are designed in the UK, they are currently manufactured in Asia, a continent where the company saw almost three-quarters of its 2017 growth.

Moreover, despite being on the verge of handing over the keys to his three-storey home, Dyson and his wife, Deirdre, still have bedding options elsewhere in Singapore, having hoovered up a £26 million tropical-style ‘bungalow’, last year.

Complete with waterfall and landscaped garden, and in close proximity to the UNESCO-listed Botanic Gardens, the property remains in their name — which not only corroborates the argument that Dyson will remain committed to his Singapore operations, but also gives us reassurance that the multi-billionaire will continue to have shelter over his head for the foreseeable future.

Sir James himself shows us around the tech titan’s headquarters…

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