Banks are bullish on Singapore’s resi market

Sales are picking up again

(Credit from back: Someformofhuman/Wikimedia Commons; Pixabay)
(Credit from back: Someformofhuman/Wikimedia Commons; Pixabay)

Since 2013, Singapore’s residential market has seen price declines, but after marginal increases in the last two quarters of 2017, the market is officially forecasting double-digit growth.

“For 2018, we expect prices in the private residential market to rise 12 to 15 per cent year on year,” said Savills Singapore’s Alan Cheong to the Financial Times.

He’s not alone: Credit Suisse estimates prices will rise up to 10 percent while OCBC Investment Research predicts growth by 8 percent, which makes Singapore their best bet for Asean residential markets.

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Not withstanding market crashes in 1997 and 2008, the city’s resi market had seen four decades worth of growth before government intervention finally cooled the market, after 10 different attempts, in 2013 with a stamp duty tax and tougher borrowing rules.

Recent easing of the government-imposed rules are prompting more sales now, according to Cheong, and increased development will push more buyers towards new buildings or renovated units, which, Morgan Stanley believes, will take care of the surplus of existing units in a city with a resi vacancy rate of 8 percent. [FT]Erin Hudson