Amid Covid-19 and rising US-China tensions, Singapore is a real estate oasis whose market is picking up again, as evidenced by new development launches

Nov 8 , 2020

The Garden Residences is a new luxury condo project jointly developed by Keppel Land and Wing Tai Asia. Photo: Keppel Land/Wing Tai

New luxury property developments in Singapore such as Penrose and NoMa have plenty of domestic demand, especially from HNWIs, but when it comes to foreign buyers mainland China is going strong

The economic battering Singapore has endured from the pandemic and global trade tensions does not appear to be reflected in its property market.

At the same time as government data showed that the national economy shrank by 13.2 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, private home prices rose by 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

And while the third quarter revealed some economic relief – the contraction moderated to just 7 per cent – the URA’s latest data shows that private home prices rose again, gaining an additional 0.8 per cent, with an even stronger growth in the volume of new home sales.

New Futura is an ultra-luxury residence in Singapore’s prime District 9. Photo: CDL

According to the developers’ sales survey by the URA, new home sales, excluding executive condominiums (EC), rose by 5.6 per cent from 1,258 units in August to 1,329 units in September, the highest monthly result since July 2018.

Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie Pte Ltd, said these results indicate that Singapore properties “are still hot amid the pandemic”.

Linking robust sales over the past few months to strong underlying demand from local buyers, Sun said many Singaporeans, especially high net worth individuals, “have been looking out for value assets to grow their wealth and are planning to ride on the wave of market recovery”.

“They may feel that it is a good time to enter the market now since prices are likely to rise after the pandemic and Singapore’s economy is positioned for a gradual recovery with many sectors being reopened in recent months,” Sun said. “The housing stock in many mega launches is diminishing, which may have stoked the urgency in some buyers to ink a unit now.”