With data, everything makes more sense – so we gave PropertyGuru agents DataSense.

Launched on 31 March 2021, DataSense is a suite of proptech data tools that we designed for PropertyGuru agents, so they can become even better advisors for property seekers.

With adoption rates growing 3x weekly, about 13% of agents are already using DataSense since its official launch. With adoption rates increasing week on week, more and more agents are expected to benefit from this tool.

Through the successful launch of DataSense, PropertyGuru is empowering agents even more, with our data technology to answer some of the most pertinent questions property seekers go through in their home buying/selling journeys.

“What is the best asking price for my property?”

Probably the trickiest question of all. These numbers could really make or break your deal!

It must be something high enough that is appealing for you to sell, yet also realistic and within the budget of your buyer. Striking this balance is easier said than done and is truly a science.

Good thing we have DataSense to help with this!

DataSense gives our agents PropertyGuru-exclusive data that compares actual transacted prices versus asking prices to make an informed judgement call.

“This exclusive data is incredibly useful and important for property sellers to adjust their price point in accordance to market rates. This is important for 2 big reasons. First, a good price point allows banks to match the property valuation easily and will make the transaction a lot smoother. Secondly, it helps with offloading your property within a comfortable timeframe for your subsequent portfolio progression. Pegging the wrong price tags to your property reduces the number and quality of interested buyers; having the right price helps attract the right buyer with a sincere bid for your property.” – Linda Yang, PropNex

Tip: Ask your agent to find this out for you under DataSense’s Market Insider tool.

“Is this the right time to sell my unit?”
“Is this the best time to buy this unit?”

Thanks to DataSense, PropertyGuru agents can immediately advice property seekers:

• If you’ll get a profit or a loss by selling your unit now
• If you can actually buy a unit below value
• …and much more!

“It’s always good for every client to have transparency on each unit’s purchase price, be it a profit or a loss. A tool like Project Insights will help property buyers and sellers analyse better before any transaction, so they can make a more informed decision. It could also help in the negotiation process.” – Zac Huang, ERA

Tip: This data is available to your agent via DataSense’s Project Insights tool.

“How does my property compare with other nearby properties?”

Whether it comes to buying or selling, it’s always good practice to do a little research around the neighbourhood.

Using DataSense, agents can quickly view comparative charts of one property versus others nearby!

“It is important for property owners to get an idea of how nearby or similar properties are performing, so you get a very realistic and objective perspective of how you can expect your property to perform. This is a big factor to help you decide if it’s the right time to sell and what is the right price for your property.” – Alvin Tay, Huttons

DataSense also empowers agents to advise on surrounding amenities at an instant within radiuses of up to 5KM!

“Your agent should be very familiar with the property and the surrounding area, with important amenities like shops, medical, distance between schools, food – almost like your agent lives in that neighbourhood! Home Report can help agents understand each property faster and better, so we in turn can advise you if this property is truly a good buy for you.” – Andrew Nair, ERA

Tip: Ask your agent to show you around the neighbourhood through DataSense’s Home Report.

With further enhancements to DataSense being rolled out in the coming months including PropertyGuru exclusive data points, the PropTech eco-system and property seekers alike are benefiting from the growing rate of PropertyGuru agents being empowered by data.

The Singapore property market is showing continued resilience in the face of a deepening recession: In the third quarter of 2020, official figures by the Ministry of Trade and Industry show that Singapore’s GDP contracted by 7% year-on-year.

Yet, in the property sector, there was a burst of activity, with the PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Q4 2020 (PMI Q4 2020) recording a 0.41% increase from 111.9 to 112.4 points. Here are some of the key highlights of the report:

Property prices are stable due to genuine buyers

Despite a sharp decrease in supply, the PropertyGuru Property Price Index (SPPI) only saw a slight gain of 0.41%. This is likely due to the market of genuine buyers. The Government’s macroprudential property cooling measures are proving effective in weeding out speculators.

Robust demand likely driven by HDB upgraders

About 20,000 Housing Development Board (HDB) units will or have already come off their Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) this year. Given low-interest rates and their access to funds (after turning a profit from the sale of their flat), the homeowners of these properties are likely to be large contributors to the robust demand observed.

July and August saw the release of pent-up demand

With new safe distancing measures in place, property transactions now take over a month to complete. This explains the burst of activity observed in July, August and September – with the demand likely coming in from the previous quarter.

Demand is healthy, but buyers more cost-conscious

Although genuine demand is somewhat resilient, buyers seem more cost-conscious amid the pandemic recession. Six out of 10 of the top-selling projects were in the OCR, and almost 40% of the properties transacted were in the $1 million to $1.5 million price range.

Read the overview of the report here, or download the PDF version so you can read it later. 

The PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Report Q3 2020 examines what played out in the sector during an unprecedented second quarter of the year, identifying key trends that are unfolding as we enter the third quarter, marked by the opening up of the economy and a well-managed health crisis.

Due to the stringent circuit breaker measures that put a pause on most of Singapore’s economy, the quarter was off to a slow start. However, when showflats reopened in June, there was a market rebound likely caused by pent up demand. According to the PropertyGuru Property Market Index Q3 2020, the quarter eventually closed with a slight gain, registering a 2.15% increase to 111.9 points.

There was a relatively higher proportion of new launch condominiums sold in the quarter, as many expect the economy to recover by 2022 to 2023, when most of these projects are slated for completion.

These trends align with the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) data, which noted a 0.3% price increase in the private residential market despite earlier estimates of a 1.1% fall in the property price index.

Meanwhile, the PropertyGuru’s Supply Index saw a record-high 46.39% increase. This was driven by a large pool of sellers in the resale market who are keen to let go of their properties. There were also higher proportions on new condos compared to resale condos sold.

Key findings of the PropertyGuru Property Market Index Q3 2020 report:

• Asking prices in the non-landed private residential sector saw a surprising increase despite a significantly higher number of listings on PropertyGuru. The Property Price Index rose by 2.15% to 111.9 from 109.6 in the previous quarter
• More new condo launches were sold on PropertyGuru compared to resale condos. New sales accounted for 70.3% whilst 29.7% were resale condos
• There were also more listings recorded on PropertyGuru. The PropertyGuru’s Supply Index saw a record-high 46.39% increase, driven by a large pool of sellers in the resale market who are keen to let go of their properties
• The top 5 districts that saw the highest median psf price growth were districts 7, 15, 12, 23 and 26, whilst districts 13, 8, 9, 28 and 22 saw the highest median psf price declines
• MRT stations remain a top priority for condo buyers. Seven out of 10 condos were located within a 10-minute walk to the MRT station, indicating that buyers continue to place high emphasis on the transport- accessibility to a property
• For the second successive quarter, large developments that typically have larger plots of land and more comprehensive facilities made up most of the top 10 bestselling projects in Q3 2020. On the ground, it was also observed that buyers prefer more spacious units, likely due to the expectation that the work from home culture is set to stay for the longer term. This also aligns with the findings of PropertyGuru’s Consumer Sentiment Study H2 2020, where 33% of the respondents indicated a preference for bigger layouts
• On the investor front, we expect an increase in demand for less volatile assets like properties in H2 2020. This is a common trend during economic slumps when interest rates are low and consumers are tight with their money.

Read an overview of the PropertyGuru Property Market Index Report Q3 2020. Or, learn our insights on the property price and supply indices and the top performing districts and projects of the quarter.

With thanks to Stuart Chng for his contributions to this report – Stuart is the Senior Associate Executive Director of OrangeTee & Tie, a renowned leader in the real estate industry and co-founder of Navis Living Group.

The PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Report Q3 2020 examines what played out in the sector during an unprecedented second quarter of the year, identifying key trends that are unfolding as we enter the third quarter, marked by the opening up of the economy and a well-managed health crisis.

Due to the stringent circuit breaker measures that put a pause on most of Singapore’s economy, the quarter was off to a slow start. However, when showflats reopened in June, there was a market rebound likely caused by pent up demand. According to the PropertyGuru Property Market Index Q3 2020, the quarter eventually closed with a slight gain, registering a 2.15% increase to 111.9 points. 

There was a relatively higher proportion of new launch condominiums sold in the quarter, as many expect the economy to recover by 2022 to 2023, when most of these projects are slated for completion.

The PropertyGuru Property Market Index Q3 2020 report examines the observed trends in greater detail and distils key insights and likely better performing regions in the second half of 2020. 

Read our insights on the property price and supply indices and the top performing districts and projects of the quarter, or read the full report here. 

The PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Q2 2020 looks over the key property data points that rounded out in Q1 2020 and illustrates the trends that may unfold as we enter the Q2 2020.

In our report, we assess the impact of COVID-19 and the circuit breaker in Singapore. Interestingly, despite the economic impacts of both, growth can be still found in a few districts.

This report elaborates on the aforementioned trends in further detail, with the spotlight shone on the best and worst-performing districts. Furthermore, it will highlight the new launches that are likely to continue to outperform the general market due to their exceptional attributes.

Key highlights of the PropertyGuru Property Market Index Q2 2020 report:

• Asking prices in the non-landed private residential sector continue to see softening as prices trend downward for a third successive quarter. The significantly higher number of listings found on PropertyGuru this quarter signals higher downside price pressure and is likely to continue for another quarter, as Q2 2020 bears the brunt of at least two months of circuit breakers.
• Six of the top ten best-selling uncompleted condominiums in the quarter were launched prior to 2019. Developments within a leisurely 10-minute walk to MRT stations continue to be in high demand, with six out of 10 projects embodying this attribute.
• Buyers preference for larger-scale developments can also be observed as seven out of 10 projects exceed a thousand units per development. Moving forward, developers are likely to have an increased risk tolerance for larger plots of land as it is proven that demand is healthy and present.
• The top five performing districts from the first quarter are made up of 3 Outside Central Region (OCR) and 2 Rest of Central Region (RCR) districts, while the bottom 5 performing districts consist of 3 from the Core Central Region (CCR) and 2 from the Outside Central Region (OCR) district. This is in line with historical trends of the Asian and Global Financial Crisis where the Core Central Region (CCR) districts typically contracted the most.

Download the full PDF report here: PropertyGuru Property Market Index Q2 2020 report

With special thanks to Stuart Chng for his contributions to the Singapore Property Market Index Q2, 2020

Stuart is the Senior Associate Executive Director of OrangeTee & Tie, is a renowned leader in the real estate industry and co-founder of Navis Living Group.

Having been a licensed real estate agent for 14 years, he is also an investor, speaker and columnist for several real estate media and blogs. Stuart has helped many clients grow their wealth through selecting great property investments and managing their portfolios actively.

Find out more about him at www.StuartChng.com/blog

The PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Q1 2020 looks over the key property data points that rounded out 2019 and illustrates the trends that may unfold as we enter the first quarter of a new decade.

In our report, we assess the unforeseen macro-level impact of the coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and try to draw a parallel to the impact of SARS in Singapore’s residential real estate 17 years ago.

This report will dive deeper into aspects that could affect asking prices, districts that are likely to benefit from the new MRT stations coming into operation, and provide details on top-selling condominiums and new launches to watch out for this quarter. 

Key highlights of the Property Market Index Q1 2020 Report:

• Asking prices in the non-landed private residential market continued to taper slightly downwards for the second successive quarter. However, the number of listings increased, with a growing number of homeowners showing a willingness to sell. Investors, in particular, may also be open to sub-sale, increasing competition for buyers in the market.
• Five of the top ten best-selling uncompleted condominiums in the quarter were launched prior to 2019; developments that are close to MRT stations are consistently in high demand. In 2020, new launches located within walking distance of an existing or future MRT station will continue to perform above market expectations.
• With new MRT stations on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) becoming operational from January 2020 onwards, PropertyGuru expects to see an upswing in asking prices for resale private residential properties within walking distance from the new stations. District 25 and 26 both benefit from new TEL stations and are tow of the top five districts in the past quarter with the highest percentage increase in median per square foot asking price.

Download the full PDF report here: PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Q1 2020 

2020 is around the corner. Not only that: a new decade is about to begin. The PropertyGuru Property Market Outlook 2020 looks at the factors that have shaped the local real estate landscape in the past decade, and examines the state-of-play of the Singapore property market today. Bringing together data, trends and expert insights in our report, we cast an eye on the year and the decade ahead so consumers can make confident property decisions.

Key Highlights of the Singapore Property Market Outlook 2020

• The rise of the city fringe, known in Singapore as the Rest of Central Region (RCR), is a key theme of our Property Market Outlook. With government decentralisation and urban renewal plans, Singapore is experiencing a second wave of city-building in RCR areas such as Paya Lebar. New developments and supporting amenities create upside in property value, which is already being realised in several RCR districts. Several key trends, as described in the report, also point toward a bright future for the RCR.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Defining The CCR, RCR And OCR In Singapore

• The Outside Central Region (OCR) also shows great promise, in particular locations along the Thomson-East Coast MRT line (TEL), which will open progressively from this year onwards. Of particular interest is Woodlands, which is primed for transformation with a new upcoming regional centre surrounding new TEL stations and also the much-anticipated Singapore-Johor Bahru Rapid Transit System (RTS).
• The Core Central Region (CCR), in the meanwhile, is undergoing an expansion and we foresee it will retain its prestige appeal even as upscale RCR properties enter the fray. District 7 (Bugis, Rochor, Beach Road) is in the limelight for the successive upscale residential projects launched in the area, which have boosted residential prices to a level that could see it overtake District 9 as the most expensive district in Singapore. The Outlook reveals whether the traditional prime districts of 9, 10 and 11 will hold up as quality residential offerings in the city area diversifies.
• HDB has pledged to build thousands of new flats in mature estates such as Queenstown and Bishan, the Property Market Outlook reveals how the HDB resale market is likely to be impacted.
• PropertyGuru data shows that, over the past three years, median per square foot (psf) asking prices of non-landed private property increased by 12%, while wage growth (gross monthly income from work) has only increased by 7 to 8%. That said, interest rates have been on a favourable downtrend this year, which may buoy buyer sentiment. But how will other macroeconomic concerns affect the property market?

Regardless of whether you’re a property buyer, owner, seller, landlord or renter, or just curious about the trajectory of the property market, the 20-page Singapore Property Market Outlook 2020 augments trends with data and sheds a new, analytical light on real estate in the year ahead—and beyond.

Download the Propertyguru Singapore Property Market Outlook 2020 report (3.2MB)

Dishing out mega-projects such as Avenue South Residence and Parc Clematis, the larger developers made their move in the 3rd quarter of 2019 as buyers showed signs of returning to the market. Our quarterly report gives the full picture.

In Q3 2019, the PropertyGuru Singapore Property Price Index (SPPI), which focuses on the asking prices in the non-landed private residential market, fell by 0.8% to 102.4 in the previous quarter. This marks a steady decline since the start of 2019, and a fall of 3.1% year-on-year since the highs of Q3 2018, when the Singapore government’s additional cooling measures came into effect. The tapering of the SPPI likely points to an increasing number of sellers entering the market and moderating their expectations to secure buyers

Meanwhile, The PropertyGuru Singapore Property Supply Index (SPSI), which focuses on the number of non-landed private residential listings posted on PropertyGuru, saw a gain of 14.9% from 94.5 in the previous quarter to 109.2 in Q3 2019. This marks the biggest increase in the SPSI in more than a year. In total, 20 postal districts reported an increase in the number of listing postings which, when viewed in perspective with the increased transaction volume in Q3 2019 that saw 5,763 total units transacted, could indicate a significant reboot in market activity—on both the buying and selling fronts—since the implementation of additional property curbs last July.

Key Highlights Of The Property Market Report Q3 2019

• For the second successive quarter, asking prices in the non-landed private residential market continued to taper slightly downwards as the number of listings increased, which likely point to an increasing number of sellers entering the market and moderating their expectations to secure buyers
• Large and mega-scale newly launched private residential projects proved popular with buyers in the quarter, with five of the top 10 best-selling condominiums located in Districts 3 and 5
• After seeing a significant increase in asking prices from the previous quarter and year-on-year respectively, District 7 looks set to become the most expensive residential district in Singapore, taking into account three new and upcoming projects in the Bugis precinct

Stay tuned and follow us on Facebook for more articles on the Property Market Index Q3 2019.

Download The Full PDF Report Here: PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Q3 2019

A stellar line-up of speakers and real estate experts came to share and discuss on how to maximise property investment opportunities, overcome challenges in the market, as well as the current Malaysian property trends.

PropertyGuru’s flagship event, The Malaysia Property Show (MPS) ended its final stretch of its exhibition series of the year with a bang! The two-day event held in Suntec Singapore saw over 450 homebuyers under-one roof making their next investment move with confidence.

Dr Tan Tee Khoon, Country Manager of PropertyGuru Group Singapore, was joined by over 25 agents at the exclusive MPS Agent Networking Brunch which kick-started the event and later joined by Mr Muhammad Radzi Jamaludin, The Malaysian Deputy High Commissioner, for a complete walkthrough to meet and mingle with participating developers, who are also PropertyGuru’s very own award winners.

Apart from developers showcasing their projects, MPS hosted a stellar line-up of speakers and real estate experts to share and discuss on how to maximise property investment opportunities, overcome challenges in the market, as well as the current Malaysian property trends.

Ikhram Merican, Managing Director of Living Space Ventures Sdn Bhd believes that “Risk is in the name of the game” as he shared his “Tried and Tested Steps to a Solid Airbnb Venture.”

Tried and Tested Steps to a Solid Airbnb Venture! By Ikhram Merican, Managing Director Living Space Ventures Sdn Bhd

More and more property investors today are looking towards Airbnb to generate cash flow, and it is very important for one to formulate cohesive and good Airbnb strategies to do well.

“If you are planning on venturing into Airbnb, you need to know how to steer through the challenges, take advantage of the opportunities out there and understand the strategies that you should employ today” shared Ikhram.

“Property investment can be risky and how you approach it changes that risk. If you have a long-term outlook and a solid understanding of the cash flow, you have already mitigated a significant portion of the risk.”

Ikhram Merican was later joined by Moderator, Khalil Adis, Director of Khalil Adis Consultancy Pte Ltd, panellists; KK Goh, Property Investor, Mentor and Coach of Awesome Alliance Pte Ltd and Nagarajan Prakash, KRSC Lead of Economic Prosperity Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) for a fruitful Investors Circle Panel Discussion titled, Top Tips for a Profitable Investment.

Investor Circle Panel Discussion: Top Tips for a Profitable Investment! From left Moderator: Khalil Adis, Director of Khalil Adis Consultancy Pte Ltd Panellists: Ikhram Merican, Managing Director of Living Space Ventures Sdn Bhd, KK Goh, Property Investor, Mentor and Coach of Awesome Alliance Pte Ltd, and Nagarajan Prakash, KRSC Lead of Economic Prosperity Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA)

Due to the proximity of Malaysia to Singapore, the growing number of Singaporean investors looking to invest across the causeway has increased as Malaysia remains to be one of the world’s top five countries to retire in according to the Global Retirement Index for 2018.

President of Malaysia My Second Home Agent Association (MM2HAA), Lim Kok Sai joined us on day-two to address the Expectations and Advantages of Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) Program.

Left: Lim Kok Sai, President of Malaysia My Second Home Agents Association (MM2HAA) engaging with attendees.

Just like the famous Charles Dickens’ novel “A tale of two cities,” Johor Bahru has become a retirement hotspot for many Singaporean investors as it has become a more familiar environment, culture and one that is closer to home.

Lim provided insights and specifications of the criteria to be eligible for the MM2H programme as well as highlighted incentives under the programme which includes, a 10 Year Social Visit Visa (renewable), Residential Property Purchases with terms and conditions, Tax-Free Income from abroad, Children Education and Business Investment Opportunities.  

Since the new Government take-over, Malaysia’s GDP is to grow between 4.5% and 5.5% for the 2018-2020 period. While the market stabilizes, PropertyGuru’s H2 2018 Consumer Sentiment Survey showed overall satisfaction with the real estate climate at 43%, the highest it has ever seen since 2013.

As such, it is safe to say that now is a good time to invest in Malaysian properties and The Malaysia Property Show (MPS) will continue to be a trusted platform to help property investors make an informed and profitable investment. 

On behalf of PropertyGuru, we would like to thank all developers, partners, speakers and attendees for making MPS a resounding success. We hope to see you next year!

Find out more about The Malaysia Property Show by clicking the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3aIYyFddmU.

If you’re renting out your property, there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to getting a decent tenant. Screening tenants and asking them the right questions are skills that all landlords must acquire, but many only realise this until its too late.

Runaway tenants, unpaid rents and damaged furniture aside, the absolute worst case scenario when landlords don’t screen tenants carefully is when they run afoul of the law and use the landlord’s premises for illicit criminal activity.

Recently, the law has been changed specially to address the rising number of foreign tenants arrested for committing vice within residential estates. And the changes mean that landlords themselves could be subject to hefty punishments, including a fine and jail time.

So, if you’re just a landlord wanting to make a decent rental yield, follow these important step-by-step tenant screening tips that can keep you on the right side of the law.

Tenant Screening Step #1: Check his/her residential status

Your property agent should be doing this, but responsibility also rests with the landlord to find out whether a foreign tenant is cleared to live and work in Singapore, by checking his/her immigration status. There are a few types of passes:

• Immigration pass
  • Issued by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA)
  • Issued to foreigners residing or studying in Singapore
    • Student’s Pass
    • Long Term Pass
• Dependant’s Pass
  • Issued by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA)
    • Cards typically to the accompanying spouse of the key pass holder. Holders do not need to be employed.
• Work Passes
  • Issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)
    • Work Permit
      • Work Permit holders are NOT allowed to rent a HDB flat, they may only rent an individual room in the flat
    • S Pass
    • Employment Pass
    • Entrepass

To do this, you’ll need to perform these checks:

• Check his/her ORIGINAL immigration pass or/and work pass;
• Cross-check photos and particulars on these passes against those in his/her original passport; and
• Verify that the pass is valid for the duration of the tenancy
• Verify with the employer that the prospective tenant is working in Singapore (optional)

To check whether the immigration or work pass is genuine, you can inspect the two holographic lenses on the pass. One should reflect the pass holder’s photograph. The other, when tilted at an angle, should show the prospective tenant’s:

• Foreign Identification Number (FIN) for Employment Pass holders
• Work pass number for Work Permit or S Pass holders

Still not convinced? You can easily verify the validity of the tenant’s immigration pass via ICA’s portal, and the work pass via MOM’s portal. This is the fastest and most foolproof way to check whether your tenant is legally allowed to work in Singapore.

Other means of verification include:

• Submitting a request to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) online
• Contacting the ICA at 6391-0000 for immigration passes during office hours, or MOM for work passes at 6438-5122
• Drop by ICA or MOM during office hours to check

For MOM passes, you can also check if the pass card matches the design of the MOM issued passes. (Because you can never do enough checks.)

Tenant Screening Step #2: Ask the right questions

Some landlords let their agents do all the work, including meeting a prospective tenant. While this might be fine for a first appointment, it’s best to find time to meet a tenant who expresses genuine interest about renting your property, before accepting any deposit or issuing any Letter of Intent (LOI).

Here are the questions you might want to ask if you want to determine whether the tenant would be a good fit for your property, especially if he/she is renting a room and sharing with you or other tenants. Remember, a disruptive room rental tenant could make your other tenants move out, damaging your income stream.

• Why are you moving out of your current place?
• Do you intend to keep any pets? How old are your pets? Are they trained?
• Do you plan on getting a roommate in the future?
• What is your typical work day like? Do you work night shifts or odd hours?
• Do you smoke? Do you smoke indoors or outside?
• Do you intend to invite visitors to the house? Might they be staying overnight?

Additionally, it is worth politely asking about the prospective tenant’s current work location. A tenant who lives near his/her place of work is less likely to move/break the lease, as opposed to one that has to commute some distance.

Don’t get us wrong, Jurong’s malls are great but, according to normal behaviour, a tenant with a day job at Tampines shouldn’t be renting here…

Tenant Screening Step #3: Check his/her credit score

While can’t check a prospective tenant’s credit score as they are the only ones who can apply for it, you can nevertheless request that they show it to you. It’d be nice if you can reimburse them the $6.50 it takes to obtain the report as well.

Even then, note that not all tenants will have a credit score – for example, foreigners new to Singapore may not have any records for you to check, whereas students are, well, broke and rely on their parent’s money. (Students happen to be the most reliable tenants, nonetheless, as parents won’t risk their children becoming homeless abroad.)

Local working professionals who want to rent your place will have credit scores, and so might foreigners who have lived here for some time. Ask for it nicely (you can do it via your agent), and tenants are often happy to comply, since it proves they are reliable. A red flag would be if the prospective tenant reacts defensively, or shows you credit score with a grade of CC or below.

That said, a poor credit score doesn’t necessarily mean your tenant can’t pay the rent. But it does mean they could be less than responsible, when it comes to payments, when could spell headaches for landlords.

RELATED ARTICLE: Tenancy Agreement, Security Deposit & Utility Deposit In Singapore

Additional tenant screening tips for landlords

While there are no other hard and fast ways to screen, some landlords go as far as to ask for prospective tenant’s payslips and proof of income, which we feel crosses the line of privacy. Instead, ask for a business card, note the position that the prospective tenant holds at the company and check employment/headhunting websites to get an idea of how much a person in that job earns. From this, you can infer whether that tenant will reliably be able to pay rent as, ideally, the monthly rental should not exceed 50% of his/her take-home income.

Furthermore, getting a business card also lets you call the prospective tenant’s employer discreetly to check if he or she is indeed an employee at the company.

Remember that, when screening a tenant, the tenant is screening you at the same time. Keeping the conversation cordial while being able to spot red flags is something you’ll be able to do if you follow the above steps and know the right questions to ask. After all, you’re counting on that guy to take care of your house, while paying you for it!

Liked this article? Read more useful guides on renting out your property in Singapore.

Majority of those surveyed believe that property sizes in Singapore are too small, with more renters feel dissatisfied about the shrinking property sizes compared to investors and landlords.  

Nearly 70% of Singaporeans believe that Singapore properties are too small, according to the latest findings in the 1H 2019 PropertyGuru Consumer Sentiment Survey. Diving deeper into the demographic profiles of the survey’s 794 respondents revealed a bigger trend: seven out of 10 (70%) renters felt that property sizes in Singapore were shrinking, whereas only 53% of investors and 59% of landlords seemed to think the same. 

Mismatch in landlord and renter expectations

While there are whispers that smaller homes are getting more popular among investors and young couples, the recent survey results indicated that significantly more renters feel dissatisfied about the shrinking property sizes compared to investors and landlords.

Tan Tee Khoon, Country Manager of PropertyGuru Singapore, cautioned that investors should take heed of the disparity among landlord and renter expectations.

“This finding is a sobering discovery for property investors, who would do well to focus on liveability and meeting the spatial comfort of prospective tenants rather than just looking at the quantum of their purchase when making a property investment. For instance, renters may ultimately prefer a 500 square foot one-bedder over a 400 square foot unit,” he said.

Most Singaporeans expect rent to fall

Majority of those surveyed also expects rental prices to decrease for the rest of the year across HDBs, condominiums, and landed properties. For HDB flats, 29% felt that rental prices will fall, in contrast to the 25% who believe that rental prices will increase. 

Condominiums saw the softest sentiments on rental: over one-third (36%) of respondents also felt that condominium rents would decrease overall, while 28% expects condo rental prices to increase. For landed properties, 30% also felt that rental prices for landed homes will decrease, compared to just 24% who felt that rental prices would increase for the rest of 2019.

“In Singapore, the competition among landlords is already beginning to be felt, with over 25 condos attaining Temporary Occupation Permit [TOP] this year,” said Tee Khoon. “The increase in supply is most significant in the Outside of Central Region [OCR], and investors of those properties will feel that they need to reduce their asking rent to avoid prolonged vacancies with the dampening economic outlook.”

While a majority of Singaporeans say that property prices are too expensive, most still say that they have high purchasing power, based on the latest survey by PropertyGuru.   

While the cooling measures of July 2018 were expected to exert a dampening influence on property prices, the majority of Singaporeans still think that properties in Singapore are priced too expensively—according to PropertyGuru’s latest Consumer Sentiment Survey conducted in the first-half of 2019.

Out of the 794 respondents surveyed, roughly 8 out of 10 (82%) think property prices are too expensive/overpriced. Size was the second biggest source of dissatisfaction among Singaporeans: 67% think properties are too small.

Calling for Government intervention

In response to whether the government is doing enough to make housing more affordable, 58% of respondents felt the government could do more to regulate developer prices of new launches, compared to 49% from the previous survey. Half of the respondents also said that there should be more subsidies given to first-timers for new projects.

These responses determined the outcome of the Property Purchase Intent index for the first-half of 2019 (1H 2019). The index, which measures the likelihood of respondents buying a property in Singapore in the next six months, now stands at an all-time low, falling to 38 from 41 half a year ago.

High purchasing power indicates wait-and-see mindset

The low Purchase Intent Index score has little to do with declining purchasing power. Although the majority of those surveyed feel that property prices are expensive, 64% nonetheless have indicated an “ability to buy a property” based on their current level of income (% unchanged from 2H 2018). Only 6% felt that they were unable to afford a property in the current climate.

Based on this finding, it would appear that high buyer purchasing power, on top of perceptions of property being overpriced, have translated to a low purchase intent that could worry developers, who have little wiggle room when it comes to pricing because of the high bids placed and won before the July 2018 cooling measures were announced.

Something might have to give. “As there were 60 projects awaiting launch at the beginning of 2019, property buyers expect developers and sellers to moderate their pricing accordingly,” observes Tan Tee Khoon, Country Manager at PropertyGuru.

In lieu of any concession, the Singapore property market is clearly locked in a wait-and-see stalemate, where the buyer is clearly king.

In Q2 2019, the PropertyGuru Property Index – which tracks supply-side pricing and volume of non-landed private residential properties in Singapore – saw over 35 percent rise in the supply index, while concurrently registering a 13.43 percent dip in the pricing index from the previous quarter.

Sales of new mass-market projects rose by 8% in Q2 2019, and this was led by two mega-projects, namely the 2,203-unit Treasure at Tampines and the 1,140-unit The Florence Residences, according to URA data. By definition, mega-projects refer to developments with over 1,000 residential units. 

Launched in late March, Treasure at Tampines occupies the site of the former Tampines Court HUDC estate and is said to be the largest condo development in Singapore. Units at the development sold at an average price of $1,280 per square foot (psf) durings its launch. It is also one of the most affordable new projects in 2019, and is one of a handful of new projects that are selling below the $1,300 psf threshold.

Meanwhile, units at The Florence Residences transacted at an average of $1,450 psf during its launch in early March. Located at Hougang Avenue 2, the condo is a redevelopment of the former Florence Regency privatised HUDC estate.

Given the large volume and the relatively affordable prices of units at these mega-projects, we believe that their entry into the market from the end of the previous quarter could have impacted our overall PMI in Q2 2019. 

For instance, we believe that the influx of new listings from these mega-projects could have resulted in a spike in our supply index – which captures the volume of listings on PropertyGuru, while concurrently leading a decline in our pricing index – which captures the asking prices of property listings on PropertyGuru.

The 2,203-unit Treasure at Tampines is said to be the largest Singapore condo ever.

Download the full 2Q 2019 PMI report here!

Supply

In the Q2 2019 PropertyGuru Property Index, we saw the number of listings rise by 35.29 percent from the previous quarter. This is in contrast to the 13.35 percent dip in supply in Q1 2019, during which developers were observed to be holding back on new launches. 

Pricing

Conversely, we saw a 13.43 percent dip in the pricing index in Q2 2019, compared to the previous quarter. This stands in contrast against the latest URA flash property price index (PPI) figures, which saw private home prices rise unexpectedly following two consecutive quarters of decline.

As mentioned, we attribute this contrast to the unprecedented number of new listings from these mega-projects, and the decline in our pricing index is unlikely to be any indication of how private home prices will behave moving forward.

 Download the full report and get The Guru View!

Where Is The Market Headed Next?

While a contrast was observed between the PropertyGuru and URA indices, we did note some consistency when we zoom into specific market segments.

For instance, both indices registered an overall uptrend for home prices in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) or the city fringes. Based on URA data, RCR homes saw one of the highest quarterly growth rates at over 3 percent in Q2 2019.

We cross-checked against the PropertyGuru Pricing Index measured by region-by-region basis. While we saw varied results in districts that lie within the RCR boundaries, we noted an overall increase in prices within the market segment.

Meanwhile, our index registered a slight quarterly decrease of minus 0.5 percent for home prices in the Core Central Region (CCR) or the prime districts in Q2 2019. But when viewed from a year-on-year basis, the figures indicated a 5.52 percent growth. 

In comparison, URA data showed a slight uptick in CCR home prices by 1.5 percent from the previous quarter. The uptick is likely supported by high-end transactions of new projects within the prime districts, which included the sale of 34 units at Boulevard 88 at a median price of $3,692 psf; 27 units at 3 Cuscaden Road (median price of $3,601 psf); and 17 units at South Beach Residences (median prices of $3,348 psf) in Q2.

Moving forward, we do not expect to see any sharp increase in home prices in the near term, particularly for projects that are moving slowly. Given the downward revision in global economic forecasts and rising unsold inventory to come from more launches, we also expect developers to remain prudent in their pricing strategy in the near term. 

What does this mean for property buyers, sellers, and investors moving forward? Download the full report and get The Guru View!

The gap between prices of Executive Condominiums (ECs) and mass market condos has been observed to be narrowing in recent years. For instance, the upcoming Piermont Grand EC is expected to launch at the $1,000 psf threshold.

It is a common assumption that Executive Condominium or EC projects are typically priced significantly lower than private properties. However, the narrowing gap between prices of ECs and mass market condos in the Outside Central Region (OCR) in recent years has come to challenge this popular notion.

For example, the EC, Rivercove Residences set a new high for EC prices when it came close to breaching the $1,000 per square foot (psf) threshold during its April 2018 launch.

On a median psf basis, we saw an increase of nearly 22% in transaction prices of new EC projects between 1Q2015 and 2Q2019 (as shown in the chart below).

Median Unit Prices ($psf) for New EC Projects From 1Q2015 – 2Q2019

Source: URA, PropertyGuru

Recent trends suggest that prices of new EC projects would continue to rise. For instance, the site of the upcoming Piermont Grand EC was sold at about $583 psf per plot ratio (ppr), which means that the estimated breakeven price for units at the development could be around $1,000 psf or higher.

This new pricing threshold in new EC launches comes quite closely to that of certain new projects in the OCR during the first half of the year. For instance, new projects such as Parc Botannia, Treasure at Tampines and Riverfront Residences have been transacting at psf prices that hover around the $1,250 and $1,300 threshold.

Meanwhile, Treasure at Tampines (shown above), launched in March this year, moved 272 units or 56 per cent of the 490 units released at an average price of $1,280 psf during it launch weekend. The project comprises 2,203 units and is touted as Singapore’s largest condo development.

The narrowing price gap in new EC projects and OCR condos in recent times has put many HDB owners who are looking to upgrade at a greater dilemma.

However, with Piermont Grand being the first EC launch in 2019 and likely the only one of the year, we expect to see keen interest in the project, especially with the pent-up demand for ECs.

Located near Nibong and Sumang LRT stations, which are linked to Punggol MRT station and bus interchange, the development will be close to the upcoming Punggol Digital District.

Whether you’re looking to buy a private condo or an EC, get insight on the best locations for your new home with our AreaInsider Guides.

Have EC prices become too high? What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments’ section below!

Fiona Ho, Digital Content Manager at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories, email fiona@propertyguru.com.sg

Why is Singapore sometimes close to the top of global comparisons of housing prices when it has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world? Are we missing something? The answer is in the detail…

By David Dickinson

It’s one thing to compare the prices of a carton of milk or gallon of petrol from country to country, but housing can be tricky as it’s not uniform. 

Which geographic market should the comparison be made on, the country as a whole, just cities, or only the capital city?  Obviously this is not an issue for Singapore. Should we look at one form of housing such as apartments or perhaps landed properties?  Do we look at the average or median price? What should the measure be, price per square foot (psf) of land or building area, or the total price of a dwelling?  The price psf will of course tell you much space you can buy, though it is not necessarily a good indicator of the costs of putting a roof over your head. Some reports might focus on user groups or segments such as expatriates or prestige property.    

As housing is so important, governments around the world intervene in the market in many ways.  They can control use of housing, restrict its ownership, impose more or less taxes, offer subsidies, or simply, to build them. Most countries have some form of “public housing” and Singapore is of no exception.  

ALSO READ: What Does A Cutback In New Condo Supply Mean For The Market?

In Singapore, roughly 75% of the housing stock is called “public housing”.  Its provision is managed by the Housing Development Board (HDB), a government agency.  It is available as-of-right to Singaporeans for purchase, and grants are available to first time buyers on sliding scales up to household incomes of S$144,000 per annum.  The remaining 25% or so of housing is called “private housing” which anyone can buy, except for some segments including landed properties that are also largely reserved for Singaporeans to own.

You can probably see where I am going with this.  Many international comparisons of housing costs do not include “public housing”.  Hence, if only private housing sales are used to calculate averages or medians in Singapore, it might not be very accurate if only a quarter of the tradable[i] stock is in the calculation.

Let’s see how things change when I include HDB in a measure of Singapore’s housing prices. Here I look at the resale prices because many new sales are “forward purchases” made several years in advance of completion.  Hence, resale housing prices reflect the cost of a dwelling I can occupy today.  I also use median prices, because averages will be skewed by small numbers of very high-priced properties, such as en bloc sales to developers. 

Table 1: Singapore Median Resale Housing Prices by Type, 2018

*Including strata landed. Sources: URA for private housing sales including Executive Condominiums. HDB resale prices sourced via: https://data.gov.sg/

In Table 1 the median resale price across all property segments in Singapore in 2018 was S$563,000 with HDB and Executive Condominiums sales accounting for about 63% of all resale transactions in 2018. Meanwhile, the median private non-landed resale price was S$1.3 million, or more than twice the overall resale median. 

Figure 1 provides more information on the distribution of resales in 2018 and shows that a little over 70% of all sales were below S$1 million. 

Therefore, in my view, excluding public housing sales leads to very biased results, and probably a conclusion that Singapore has one of the most expensive housing markets in the world.  

Figure 1 – Distribution of Resale Housing Prices Singapore 2018

Figure 1

If an international comparison is to compare prices in a segment such as landed property, or on the square foot cost rather than the overall user cost of housing, then perhaps fair enough, so long as this is made clear.  If the comparison is meant to only cover housing that foreigners can purchase then there may be justification to exclude public housing in Singapore, though most foreigners[ii] coming here to work choose to rent housing, and they are able to rent either public or private housing. 

Some readers will no doubt question my approach; yes the public housing market is subsidised and highly regulated, and no, prices don’t reflect additional stamp duties. I could go on, but at the end of the day some expediency is necessary because it is very difficult to get a perfect apples-to-apples comparisons of the capital cost of putting a roof over your head across countries. 

However, it is possible to be in the right ballpark, and some researchers do measure housing prices in Singapore more correctly than others when making international comparisons. For example, Demographia[iii] and Jones Lang Lasalle[iv] both use prices close to the median that I show here.     

So, when you next read that Singapore has some of the highest housing prices in the world, make sure you read the fine print.  If there isn’t any, then take the results with a large grain of salt. Till next time.

Notes:

[i] By tradable I mean much of the stock is owned by individuals and can be sold, though there can of course be restrictions and/or taxes on sales. 

[ii] Here I am mostly referring to Employment Pass holders who would have the financial resources to rent or perhaps buy housing, though S-Pass holders might also rent housing.

[iii] Demographia, “Annual International Housing Affordability Survey 2018”, http://www.demographia.com/dhi2018.pdf

[iv] Jones Lang Lasalle, “The global housing market: Singapore is leading the pack”, April 2019.  While the median price is not stated the report, they calculate home price to income ratios that reflect public and private housing.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute investment or financial advice.  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is accurate, individuals must not rely on this information to make investment or financial decisions.  

The author and PropertyGuru do not give any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of information which is contained in this article.  Except insofar as any liability under statute cannot be excluded, the author, PropertyGuru and its employees do not accept any liability for any error or omission in this article, or for any resulting loss or damage suffered by any person or organisation.

Home buyers looking for Singapore Properties may like to visit our Listings, Project Reviews and Guides.  Also read more about the hottest areas to live in with PropertyGuru’s AreaInsider

It’s been almost a year since the latest cooling measures were enforced and while overall sales transaction volume has been going down, the high-end segment continues to hold its appeal amongst property investors, which includes the rich and the famous!

From a TVB star to the daughter of a famed Malaysian tycoon – it seems like there’s no stopping the rich and the famous from snapping up a home on our tiny little island!

To start, the daughter of a celebrated Malaysian tycoon was reportedly behind one of the most expensive property transactions in 2018. Kuok Hui Kwong, daughter of the Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, is said to have purchased a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) for $43.5 million just a couple of weeks after the cooling measures hit on July 6. Located at 82 Belmont Road, the property spans across a 2,826 sq m or 30,408 sq ft site.

Ms. Kuok, who is the chairman of Shangri-La Asia, is said to be a Malaysian citizen and a Singapore permanent resident (PR). While non-Singaporeans are generally not allowed to purchase such landed properties, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has been quoted saying that a handful of PRs have been granted to buy a landed residential property in a GCB Area in the past six years due to their “exceptional economic contributions” in Singapore.

Another notable personality who moved to Singapore post cooling measures last year was veteran Hong Kong TVB actor Benz Hui. A familiar face of Hong Kong drama serials, Hui became a Yishun resident in October last year. Word on the street is that the actor moved to a private housing estate in Yishun.

Hui, 69, is best known for projects such as the crime drama Line Walker (2014), alongside Raymond Lam and Charmaine Sheh, and the movie, Love Undercover (2002), starring Miriam Yeung and Daniel Wu.

Hong Kong TVB actor Benz Hui became a Yishun resident in October last year. Image source: Lee Bee Wah’s Facebook.

In an interview with the Chinese evening daily Shin Min Daily News, Hui spoke about his homes in Hong Kong and Singapore, adding that his family members visited Singapore whenever they had time.

Hui said he liked the Singapore environment and thought it was a good place to retire in.

Singapore continues to hold appeal for foreign investors

Interest from foreign buyers (non-permanent residents) in the Singapore residential market has also remained robust, accounting for about 37% of new sales transactions within the prime districts in the three months following the end of 1Q2019 (as shown in the graph below).

Click for full-sized infographic! Source: PropertyGuru, URA. *Figures are accurate as at 14 June, 2019.

In May 2019, a 5,673 sq ft penthouse at the ultra-luxury condo, Boulevard 88 sold at $28 million or $4,936 psf – the highest in psf terms to be achieved at the freehold development.

Two other penthouse units at Boulevard 88 also breached the $4,000 psf mark in March and April this year, with the units fetching $29.53 million ($4,899 psf) and $28 million ($4,297 psf) respectively.

The project, which is a joint venture by Hong Leong Holdings, City Developments Ltd (CDL) and Lea Investments, comprises 154 units in twin 28-storey towers. In 1H2019, at least 53 units (35% of total units) at the development has been sold at an average price of $3,705 psf.

Another project that has enjoyed brisk sales within the same time period is the nearby 3 Cuscaden. Launched in November 2018, the 96-unit development moved 39 units at an average $3,585 psf in the first half of 2019. Based on URA caveats, a total of 60 units (62.5% of total units) has been snapped up at the development to date.

The buyers at these high-end projects are said to be generally foreigners, namely, Chinese investors.

A 5,673 sq ft penthouse at the ultra-luxury condo, Boulevard 88 sold at $28 million or $4,936 psf – the highest in psf terms to be achieved at the freehold development – in May.

The city-state’s reputation as a safe haven for investors has without a doubt, continued to attract foreign investors who are interest in wealth preservation and who do not want to be exposed to risks such as political unrest or the changing of governments.

Some Hong Kong tycoons have reportedly started to move their personal wealth offshore as concern deepens over a local government plan to allow extraditions of suspects to face trial in China for the first time.

Viewed from a pricing perspective, Singapore properties also continue to be seen as being relatively affordable compared to cities such as Hong Kong, often touted as the world’s “most expensive city”. Wealthy investors seeking good buys will also take the recent price declines in Singapore properties as an opportunity to enter the market.

It is for these reasons that Singapore will continue to hold its ground as a top investment destination in the region, especially for the rich and the famous!

We wonder which other celebrities will move Singapore next…

Home buyers looking for Singapore Properties may like to visit our Listings, Project Reviews and Guides.

Fiona Ho, Digital Content Manager at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories, email fiona@propertyguru.com.sg

The Government has acted to reduce private housing supply under the GLS programme for 2H2019 by 15%. Three things are expected to happen: home prices will remain stable, developers will focus on smaller sites, and there will be more demand for entry-level private housing by HDB upgraders and first-time homebuyers. 

The Government has acted to reduce supply of private residential housing from confirmed sites under the government land sales (GLS) programme for the second half of 2019, due to a dip in buying demand after 2018’s property cooling measures and a large supply in the pipeline.

Five confirmed list sites and eight reserve list sites that can yield about 6,430 private homes, 92,000 square metres gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space and 1,100 hotel rooms were announced by the Ministry of National Development (MND) on Thursday (June 6).

With the cutback, supply of private homes on the confirmed list for 2H2019 of the GLS programme will fall by 15% to 1,715 units from the 2,025 units in 1H 2019.

What does this mean for Singapore’s homebuyers and the property market at large? Here are 3 things we can expect:

1) Home prices to remain stable 

The reduction in land supply for private housing units should ease supply pressure and provide support for property prices to stay firm, says Huttons Asia head of research Lee Sze Teck.

The cutback comes amid oversupply concerns, with roughly 44,000 private housing units in the pipeline. This comprises roughly 39,000 unsold units from GLS and collective sales sites with planning approval, and an additional 5,000 units from sites that are pending planning approval. In addition, there are around 24,000 existing private housing units that remain vacant.

In comparison, buying demand has continued to fall since the introduction of the property cooling measures in July last year, while transaction volume has declined for the third straight quarter in Q1 2019, and developers’ demand for land also moderated, MND said.

The cutback in supply is expected to even out the supply-demand equilibrium in the local housing market.

2) Developers to focus on smaller sites

On the back of the growing unsold inventory, developers are observed to be restrained on high-unit yielding sites. This comes especially in light of impending additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) remission rules on development sales success, says Desmond Sim, Head of Research at CBRE, Southeast Asia.

The latest cooling measures introduced a new, non-remissible 5% ABSD for developers when they purchase residential development sites (including en bloc sites). In addition, the remissible ABSD for residential developers has been raised to 25% from the previous 15%. If a developer fails to complete a project and sell all off its units within five years of acquiring the site, it will have to pay the 25% ABSD with interest. It is for this reason that developers tend to be more cautious when bidding for larger sites.

Out of the five residential sites in the Confirmed list, a new site along Irwell Bank Road was included, while the other four sites including an EC were transferred from the 1H2019 Reserve List.

Confirmed list of residential sites under the 2H2019 GLS Programme

Source: MND

One notable change in the 2H2019 Confirmed List was that the site on Canberra Drive that was on the Reserve List in 1H2019, has now been split into two sites – Canberra Drive (Parcel A) and Canberra Drive (Parcel B).

CRBE’s Sim views this as a positive move from the state planners. “The site dissection has made the sites (Parcels A and B) more palatable for developers to consider,” says Sim.

Meanwhile, Ong Teck Hui, Senior Director of Research and Consultancy at JLL, says that the Irwell Bank Road site within the prime districts stands out as an attractive prime site. “It is in the vicinity of numerous upmarket residential developments, including New Futura,” he says.

However, being a sizeable development that could generate 445 units, the absolute land price is likely to be high and developers are expected to be cautious in bidding for the site, given the oversupply in the prime sub-market, says JLL’s Ong.

3) More ”entry-level” projects in the pipeline

The two parcels at Canberra Drive (Parcels A and B) are sites that would generate entry-level private housing that would be in demand by HDB upgraders and first-time homebuyers, says JLL’s Ong.

Of the two, Parcel A appears to be the more attractive site, as it is regular in shape, smaller (220 units) and is more affordable. On the other hand, Parcel B is oddly shaped and is much larger (445 units). However, as both sites are located near the future MRT station at Canberra Link, there should be fair interest from potential bidders, he adds.

Lastly, the EC site at Fernvale Lane is likely to see healthy demand from developers as the supply pipeline for ECs, while increasing, is not excessive. However, bids may be moderated as supply is not as tight as before and market conditions could be less buoyant.

Feeling the pinch of paying more upfront after new measures in 2018? Turn back time and save on your new home with the biggest deals in town! Get it now at: www.propertyguru.com.sg/gurudeals

Fiona Ho, Digital Content Manager at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories, email fiona@propertyguru.com.sg

In Q1 2019, the PropertyGuru Property Index, which tracks housing supply in Singapore fell by over 13 percent from the previous quarter. The slowdown could be attributed to the property cooling measures that were rolled out in July 2018. 

The roll-out of new private homes for sale has been slower than initially predicted, with property developers holding back on new launches. For the whole of 2019, analysts expect about 40 to 60 new launches, which could bring about as many as 23,000 to 25,000 private housing units to the market. 

Download the full report now 

Price declines were also observed in the prime districts, where home prices saw the first quarterly dip since Q4 2016 – the peak of the previous round of property cooling measures.  

However, demand remained buoyant for certain new prime district projects such as the freehold Boulevard 88, which sold 20 out of 25 units and was launched at an average price of $3,550 psf.  

Announcement of the new Serangoon North MRT station along the upcoming Cross Island Line also boosted sales at Affinity at Serangoon, which saw a take-up of 88 units out of the 250 units (about 35%) released during its Phase II launch in February. 

But global headwinds remain and interest rates have been rising despite a pause in global interest rate hikes. Moreover, bond yield compressions are leading to fears of an impending recession.  

What does this mean for property buyers, sellers, and investors moving forward? Download the full report and Get the Guru View.

Click to download the full size infographic!

PropertyGuru’s Property Index aggregates and indexes data from our over 200,000 private residential property listings in Singapore to demonstrate the movement of supply side pricing. It provides a view on seller optimism and indicates the price level that real estate developers and homeowners feel they can fetch for their respective properties. 

Download the full report now 

Get more insights on the locations with the highest price growth potential at AreaInsider. For helpful tips on the buying, selling and renting property, check out PropertyGuru’s Guides and Resources.  

View of high-rise condominiums in Singapore.

By David Dickinson

Which condominium projects have provided investors with the highest rates of rental growth over the last few years? 

To find out, I used a free URA “e-Service” that provides quarterly statistics on median rents for non-landed private residential developments with a minimum of 100 units and at least 10 leases signed every quarter*. 

To help reduce the impact that differences** in the units leased from period to period might have on the accuracy of the estimated growth rates, I took the average of the median rent reported by URA for all four quarters of a year and only included projects with rents reported in every quarter.  This meant there was a minimum of 40 leases each year in each project, though the average was between 120 and 130 leases.     

Looking for a rental property in Singapore? Find an agent to take the hassle out of your home search. 

The big picture

I estimated the growth in median rentals across all projects that met the inclusion criteria over one, five and 10 years to 2018 with the overall results shown in Table 1.  The number of projects used to estimate growth over each period varies, mostly because of the rise in condominium stock in recent years.     

Table 1. Rental growth across non-landed projects with over 100 units & at least 40 leases p.a. 

The last few years have not been a great time for landlords. Over 10 years to 2018, the median rent across all projects fell by about 1.4 percent per annum, and by about 4.2 percent per annum over five years. To be fair, these growth rates do mask periods when rents rose. For example, the URA’s rental index rose by about eight percent in the first half of 2008, and then fell by about 20 percent to the end of 2009.  Rents then rose by about 27 percent until late 2013, after which they drifted down steadily until starting to stabilise in 2018.

Rentals over 2018 fell by only 0.4 percent, showing that conditions have improved overall, and about 42 percent of the projects included experienced stable or growing rents.   

The top 15 performing projects

Let’s turn to the top performing projects.  Here I show the 15 projects with the highest annual rental growth rates over one, five and 10-year periods.   

Over one year

The results in Figure 1 might surprise you. J Gateway in Jurong East was the best performer over 2018 with rentals growing by 8.9 percent.  In second place was Foresque Residences in District 23 near Dairy Farm Road at 7.3 percent.  Cairnhill Nine in District 9 came in third place at 5.6 percent.  Interestingly, there were only two other projects out of the top 15 in central locations (The Plaza and Mirage Tower).  

The top performing projects were in many cases quite new, having been completed since 2013.  The approximate average size of apartments leased in the top performing projects was less than 1,000 sq ft with only Cashew Heights in District 23 having leases for apartments averaging about 1,500 sq ft.

Figure 1

Why did newer projects perform well?  It’s possible that they contained large numbers of units intended for rental and after TOP many were being marketed, thus giving tenants plenty of choice.  As units were taken up and vacancies fell, rents might have risen by more than the wider market. Just a hunch. 

Foresque Residences, Tree House and The Lanai in District 23 together with Waterfront Isle and Waterfront Key in District 16 may have also benefited from the completion of Stage 3 of the Downtown MRT line in 2017.  

Over five years

Ocean Park in District 15 was the best performer with rents falling the least (0.6 percent per annum) with Waterside also in District 15 coming in fourth best with a 1.8 percent fall per annum.  Both these projects are relatively older and contain apartments over 2,000 sq ft in size, so perhaps they benefited from families relocating from en bloc projects.

Figure 2

Tiong Bahru Estate and People’s Park Complex came in second and third respectively. Both are old by Singapore standards but very centrally located. Two District 9 projects made it into the top 15 (The Imperial and The Metz), as did Marina Bay Residences and The Coast at Sentosa Cove.  Meraprime in Tiong Bahru also made 15th spot. There were three projects in District 21 (The Stirling, The Maple Woods, and Floridan) that may also have benefited from the new Downtown Line. Again, no projects in Districts 10 and 11 made the list.

Over 10 years

For growth over 10 years the pool of projects shrinks to 109. Many of the projects in the top 15 are much older than 10 years, with the youngest completed in 2005 (The Waterina). 

The top performing development over the last decade was not even a condo, it was Tiong Bahru Estate (2.7 percent rise per annum), a privatised conservation area with apartments developed in the Art Deco style. The marketing hype suggests that it’s become very chic and perhaps its central location and possible extensive renovation of units helps explain its relatively good performance.    

In second place was People’s Park Complex, which is of course very centrally located in the CBD, though it’s certainly not in the chic category, being quite old and may also go en bloc (as have some other projects that made the top 15).    

Figure 3

With the exception of the top two performers that are both in very central locations, the other 13 are spread across Singapore. None are in Districts 9, 10 or 11. 

The opening of the Circle and Downtown MRT lines probably helped some make the top 15 list. In District 19, Chiltern Park and Chuan Park are located close to Lorong Chuan MRT station while Sunglade is not too far away. Over in District 23, Hillview Heights and Glendale Park are close to Hillview MRT station. 

District 14 also has three projects in the top 15 list. All three are in the Geylang area with Sunny Spring and The Waterina also within walking distance of Dakota MRT station on the Circle line.   

Summing up

How to make sense of these results? Firstly, we need to remember that only projects containing over 100 units were included, so we don’t know how many smaller projects might have made the top 15 list. With this caveat, it seems that projects with smaller units have performed quite well over the short term (one year), but not necessarily in the most central areas. Over longer periods, older projects performed well, possibly due to their locations and larger unit sizes. Over all the time periods, projects in the traditional prime rental areas of Districts 9, 10 and 11 did not often make the lists, which probably points to some restructuring in the rental market as supply has increased in decentralised locations and the introduction of new MRT lines has improved accessibility across Singapore.  We can take a closer look at this in another article.

I am sure readers will have thoughts on the results and these are welcome. Until next time.

*The service is called “Median rentals of private non-landed residential properties by name” and is available on https://www.ura.gov.sg/realEstateIIWeb/rental/search.action.

**Major differences can include the size of units leased, number of bedrooms, floor level, views and facing, furnishings included, and whether units are in renovated or original condition.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute investment or financial advice.  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is accurate, individuals must not rely on this information to make investment or financial decisions.  

The author and PropertyGuru do not give any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of information which is contained in this article.  Except insofar as any liability under statute cannot be excluded, the author, PropertyGuru and its employees do not accept any liability for any error or omission in this article, or for any resulting loss or damage suffered by any person or organisation.

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What’s causing the fluctuations in leasing activity and rents of private non-landed properties in Singapore? The average size of apartments leased has been falling down from about 1,200 sq ft to about 1,075 sq ft over the period. One reason is that the stock of smaller apartments has been rising. 

By David Dickinson

Last time we looked at how leasing activity and rents fluctuate from month to month each year. I plotted the monthly variations in total and per square foot (PSF) rents over the last four years. Total rents (orange bars in Figure 1) appeared to be highest in the July to September period and lowest in November and December, while rents measured on a PSF basis were on average higher in April and lowest in June and December.   

Figure 1

We now take a closer look at what might be causing these fluctuations. Figure 2 shows the average size of private non-landed properties leased out in Singapore each month from 2014 to 2018 together with a trend line. It’s obvious that the average size of apartments leased has been falling, down from about 1,200 sq ft to about 1,075 sq ft over the period. This is mostly because the stock of smaller apartments has been rising. 

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But around this trend is a fluctuation in the average size of units leased from month to month, with units being noticeably larger in July and August every year and smallest around April.    

Figure 2

In order to explore monthly leasing activity across units of different sizes, I grouped leases into three size categories; units under 1,000 sq ft, 1,000 to 2,000 sq ft and units over 2,000 sq ft. I then converted the number of leases every month to an index starting at 100 in March 2014. The index for units under 1,000 sq ft was adjusted for the increase in the relative amount of stock in this size category in order to make comparisons easier. 

Figure 3 shows the resulting index every month from March 2014. While there are consistent monthly variations across all the size groups, they are very pronounced for units over 2,000 sq ft (grey line) with extremely high July and August peaks.   

Figure 3

Leasing for smaller apartments is not as volatile month-to-month, and while there are also July and August peaks, there is another peak in April, particularly for units under 1,000 sq ft.

Are rents also higher during the peak leasing months?

Let’s firstly look at larger apartments. I selected leases in districts 9, 10 and 11 for apartments between 2,000 and 3,000 sq m in size and show average rents on a PSF basis* in Figure 4. 

Figure 4

The volume of leasing is very high in July and August and rents are also noticeably higher in these months, suggesting that there may be an advantage for landlords to market larger properties at this time when there are likely to be more tenants looking for properties. But there are other possible reasons for higher rents. For example, the most luxurious large apartments could be more likely to be leased at that time of the year when expatriates are most active. Also, a relatively large proportion of leases could be renewals and they might not fully reflect current market conditions, or perhaps corporate leases are more common at that time of year and maybe companies are more generous than tenants on private leases. Whatever the reasons, the peaks are very evident and the last six months of 2018 show a difference in average rents from a peak of $3.66 psf in August and an average of $3.25 psf from October to December.

What is the seasonal pattern for smaller apartments? Here I look at units under 800 sq ft in the inner districts 1, 2 and 9 as they had the highest average rents PSF for small apartments and relatively high levels of leasing activity in the segment.   

Looking at leasing volume, April is consistently the strongest month, but July to September was strong in some years, especially last year. The high levels of unit completions may have influenced leasing levels as units are put on the rental market for the first time, so we need to be careful in making conclusions as this may help explain the less apparent seasonality. 

Rents also do not seem to have the pronounced July and August peaks we can see for large apartments. In 2018, average rents were highest from January to April but fell since about May. This might also be due to completions of new units, but might be influenced by a margin of error in my rent calculations** as they are based on the mid-points of the unit size bands reported by URA for each lease.   

Figure 5

It seems that the leasing of smaller units is not as seasonal as for larger apartments and there is certainly less evidence of rents spiking higher in line with activity levels, though there is a puzzling April peak in or near the CBD. This however disappears in districts further from the CBD, such as Districts 14 and 15, which also have a lot of leases for smaller units. As new supply slows, it will be worth keeping an eye on the leasing of smaller apartments to see whether these patterns stay the same. In the meantime, I will be hunting for a more accurate way to measure PSF rents .

*The average rent per square foot is based on the mid-point of the size bands reported by the URA for each lease. For example, if the size band for a lease was 2,300 to 2,400 square feet, I adopted 2,350 square feet to derive the rent per square foot.

**For small apartments, the margin of error in estimating the rent per square foot increases because the URA publishes fixed size bands of 100 sq ft irrespective of unit size. Therefore adopting the mid-point of 450 sq ft for a unit reported as being between 400 to 500 sq ft in size will result in a less precise rent estimate than for larger units. With large numbers of transitions, the bias may to some extent be cancelled out when calculating averages, but even so, care needs to be taken in drawing conclusions using this estimation method. 

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While 88 percent of respondents in our Consumer Sentiment Survey believe that property prices are high and 72 percent expect prices to increase over the next six months, 66 percent still consider property within the city-state as not only affordable but also good ‘value for money’.

Despite the perceived high prices, many Singaporeans remain positive of the local property market, findings from the latest PropertyGuru Consumer Sentiment Survey showed.

This comes as 41 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Singapore’s real estate climate.

With this, the Sentiment Index increased to 45 points during the second half of 2018 from 39 in the first half of 2018. The index measures current real estate satisfaction, real estate climate, affordability, interest rate situation, property prices and perceived government efforts.

And while 88 percent of respondents believe that property prices are high and 72 percent expect prices to increase over the next six months, 66 percent still consider property within the city-state as not only affordable but also good ‘value for money’.

In fact, 64 percent were able to acquire a home at current prices and within their current incomes, while 27 percent intend to purchase a home in the following year.

“With prices in the private property market starting to see declines from cooling measures, and the HDB resale market remaining flat, buyers are likely to consider entering the market in 2019,” said Jeremy Williams, chief business officer of PropertyGuru Group.

“Furthermore, with at least 40 new launches expected to hit the market this year, private property buyers will have plenty of options to choose from. Despite macroeconomic uncertainties, we see from our sentiment survey that there remains a firm belief in the long-term potential of Singapore’s property market.”

The survey also showed increased intention among respondents to buy a condominium (by 22 percent), mixed-use development (by 32 percent) and landed property (20 percent) within the next six months.

For those looking to upgrade to private property, positive perception increased the highest for executive condominiums (ECs) at six percent.

Meanwhile, the survey also noted a growing trend among millennials of moving out of their parents’ homes earlier.

At least 24 percent of respondents who moved out of their family homes were 27 years of age and below.

Click to see the full size infographic.

Home seekers who are single and looking to buy property may want to refer to this handy guide. In the meantime, find out what you can afford to buy with our affordability calculator.

Fiona Ho, Digital Content Manager at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories, email fiona@propertyguru.com.sg

Could there be a time of the year when activity and rents are higher or lower irrespective of position in the property cycle? We break it down for you. 

By David Dickinson

When is the best time to lease an apartment in Singapore?  There’s an obvious answer, right? When the market is at the bottom if you are a tenant, and at the top if you are a landlord. Well yes, but could there be a time of the year when activity and rents are higher or lower irrespective of position in the property cycle?

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Statisticians refer to repetitive ups and downs in numbers at certain times of the year as seasonality and official statistics are often adjusted to remove them. I am pretty sure Singapore’s rental indices are adjusted for seasonality, but knowing the impact of seasonality can be useful.   

Today I will take a look at seasonality by looking at leases for non-landed private properties registered every month.    

Figure 1

In Figure 1 you can see that the number of new leases every month varies greatly.  They are highest in July and August and lowest in February and the October through December period. February is low as it is a short month and usually contains the Chinese New Year holiday period. Perhaps the long school holiday months of June and December are also not so good for leasing. But why are the months of July and August so strong? It might be because the expatriate market is most active at that time. Perhaps companies are more likely to move their staff during the long northern hemisphere summer holiday break. 

Figure 2 wraps some numbers around the monthly ups and downs so evident in Figure 1.     

Figure 2

In July and August, the volume of leasing activity was, on average, 20 percent and 17 percent higher respectively than the annual average level of leasing. April was also stronger, at about seven percent higher. The worst month was February at -18 percent, followed by November at -14 percent and December at -12 percent.  I guess the takeaways are that property agents should never book holidays in July and August and renters might encounter more competition.

But what about rents?  Do they also fluctuate through the year?  Figure 3 shows rents measured two ways; firstly the monthly median rent per square foot (blue line), and secondly the average monthly total rent (orange line). 

Figure 3

It’s also obvious that both rent series have seasonal variations, but what’s interesting is that they are somewhat different. Let’s look at Figure 4 to see how different by looking at how much monthly rents deviate from the surrounding trend*.

Figure 4

The total monthly rent (the orange bars) is relatively higher every year in the July through September period, peaking in August when rents are about six percent higher than the average for the year. When measured on a PSF basis (the blue bars), the variation in rents over the year are not so wide, though they are about two percent higher than average in April, August and September, and two to three percent lower in June and December. 

What is going on here?  Are rentals really higher in some months than others?  Perhaps, though I suspect there are other reasons. For example, higher total average rents every August might be influenced by relatively more leases for higher-rental apartments.     

The monthly variations in rents measured on a PSF basis are not as extreme. The lower rents in June and December are probably due to the holiday periods, but the higher rents in April is puzzling. 

I would hold off concluding that there are certain months favourable to be leasing for landlords or tenants until we have looked more closely at the data as the variations might be explained by differences in leasing activity between districts and unit sizes. Till next time.    

*The following method was used to estimate the monthly deviations in leasing volume and rents. Using rents to illustrate, their average deviations in a month is based on the rent in that month as a percentage of the average rent over the surrounding 12 months (i.e. June in each year is relative to the January to December average, July is relative to the February to January average, and so forth). The deviations for the same month in each year from mid-2010 to mid-2018 are then averaged. Sharp underlying market ups and downs and high levels of new stock completions over short periods can influence these average monthly deviations. 

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The Little India area continues to attract expat tenants with its distinct charm and character, as well as its proximity to the city centre.  

By David Dickinson

Last time I looked at the most leased and owner-occupied projects in Singapore.  Based on the top 10 developments in these categories, it appeared that those in the central areas were more likely to be leased and that older developments might have more owner-occupiers. Also, smaller projects and those containing smaller-sized units might have more rented apartments. Let’s look at this more closely by using the Lease Ratio again. As you may recall, this measures the number of leases registered for every 100 units each year. I look at leases over the last four years in private condominium and apartment projects completed up to 2015.

Lease Ratios by District

As expected, projects in the CBD and adjacent districts had the highest Lease Ratios. In Figure 1, Districts 2 and 1 were highest at 53 and 46 leases per 100 units respectively, about double the average for Singapore. Little India (District 8) was the next highest at 38 followed by the Harbourfront area (District 4) on 36 and Districts 6 and 7 covering the Beach Road to Bencoolen areas at 35. The traditional rental districts 9, 10 and 11 were also above average at 33, 29 and 31 leases per 100 properties respectively. 

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The district with the lowest Lease Ratio was 26 ((Mandai/Upper Thomson), with only 13 leases per 100 units every year followed by Districts 20 ((Ang Mo Kio/Bishan/Thomson), 23 (Dairy Farm to Choa Chu Kang) and 27 ((Sembawang/Yishun) with 16 each.

Figure 1

…by Age of Project

Older projects do have fewer leases than newer projects, suggesting they may contain more owner-occupiers. Figure 2 shows that there were about 23 leases per 100 units in projects completed between 1990 and 2009 compared to 32 in projects completed from 2010. The ratio for the oldest projects built before 1990 was lowest at 18, though this may have been influenced by en bloc fever, with some owners not wanting to lease their properties if a sale was expected.   

Figure 2

…. by unit size*

As would probably be expected, projects containing smaller units have much higher Lease Ratios than projects containing larger units, though amongst projects with average unit sizes that exceed about 1,500 sqft the ratio rises (see Figure 3).  The main reason for this could be due to concentrations of projects with larger apartments in districts popular for leasing by families, such as District 10.  The extent of leasing in projects with smaller units might be interesting to explore more, especially given the Government’s recent changes to development controls on unit sizes.  

Figure 3

… by size of project

I also expected that projects with smaller numbers of units might have higher Lease Ratios. To see whether this is generally true, Figure 4 shows the average leasing ratio by project size. The results here are not so clear cut. Yes, projects of under 250 units do have higher lease ratios at 28, but large projects of over 750 apartments also have higher than average ratios. Size may have some influence on leasing activity, but other factors such as project age, location or unit size might be more important. 

Figure 4

So what are the take-away’s?  Leasing activity is definitively higher in and near central areas, in newer projects and amongst smaller units. Should landlords therefore focus on these types of projects? Maybe yes and maybe no. We have just looked at lease volumes. Assuming most landlords are also investors, then it’s the total return that matters and this is driven by and a combination of rental yields and capital growth. Just buying smaller, newer and more centrally located apartments may or may not provide the best returns. Till next time.

*The average size of units in a project was based on all the leases over four years in a project. By using this method, there may be some bias if, for example, larger units in a project were leased less than smaller units. I have checked the average unit sizes in projects based on this method against the average sizes of units sold in the same projects and the differences are not large enough to materially affect the overall results shown here.

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View of luxury apartments in Singapore.

By David Dickinson

Where are the most tenants and owner-occupiers to be found in condominium and apartment projects across Singapore?  This is fairly easy to answer because information on all registered residential leases is freely available online from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)*.  As most landlords register their leases it’s a good indicator of rental activity. 

Over 2018 there were about 80,600 residential leases registered across some 293,000 private non-landed properties (average Q1 to Q3 2018) which meant there were 27.5 new leases for every 100 properties. Lets call this the “Lease Ratio” and we can use it to compare the extent of leasing across projects. 

It’s a useful but not perfect measure for making comparisons. For example, if leases are one year in length then there will be one registered every year (ignoring time finding new tenants and early terminations), but if leases are two years in length then there will one registered every two years. So if two projects of the same size have the same number of leases registered every year they probably won’t have the same proportion of apartments rented. Also, in new projects we might see many leases in the first year after completion but much fewer in the second year as units are initially rented. We also know from rental ads on PropertyGuru that small apartments are more likely to be advertised on shorter leases than large apartments. Also, projects with small numbers of units have more fluctuations in leases from year to year than larger projects.      

To come up with the 10 most rented and owner-occupied projects, I excluded those completed after 2014 because they may not have been fully stabilised or all sold, and also used the average annual number of leases from 2015 to 2018 to help smooth fluctuations at the project level. Projects with less than 100 units were excluded as were those in single ownership for rental-only. I also excluded projects that were offered or sold enbloc for redevelopment.    

Most rented projects

The award for the project with the highest Lease Ratio goes to Parc Imperial in Pasir Panjang with 71 leases per 100 units, followed by Lumiere near Tanjong Pagar with 71 (see Table 1). 

Most of the top 10 are recent projects though Parc Imperial is not so new and The Bencoolen is relatively old. Amongst the newer projects it’s possible that some developers have leased unsold apartments and the average unit sizes in the top 10 are small. In comparison, the average size of all units leased in Singapore was about 1,200 sq ft.      

Turning to projects with over 500 units (Table 2) The Sail @ Marina Bay and Icon in the CBD take the title of most rented each with 55 leases per 100 units.  Keppel land’s Reflections and Caribbean at Keppel Bay both make the top 10. The top 10 projects are mostly centrally located, though The Lakefront Residences in seventh place is a surprise as it is in the Jurong area. These larger projects tend to be older and leases are for larger units than seen in smaller developments with the highest lease ratios. 

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Most owner-occupied projects

Where is the most owner-occupied project? That award goes to Forest Hill Condominium in District 26 with only four leases per 100 units every year. This was followed by Hilltop Grove in the Bukit Batok area of District 23 with six leases.   These ratios suggest that the proportion of rented units in these projects is very low. For example, if all the leases in Forest Hill were two years duration, then the maximum percentage leased for the development would be eight percent, though in reality it’s probably less due to some leases being shorter.      

Rio Vista comes in seventh overall with seven leases but tops our list for projects with over 500 units shown in Table 4.  

Aside from the projects, what might we generalise from these league tables. 

Firstly, centrally located developments seem to contain more leases and therefore rental apartments, while those in outer districts contain fewer.   

Higher rates of leasing is evident in newer projects, probably in those under 500 units in size. As a rule of thumb older projects may have lower Lease Ratios and are more decentralised, though there are exceptions such as Valley Park that is very central.  Also smaller projects are more likely to have higher leasing ratios though this might be because inner districts could contain projects that are smaller than in outer districts, on average.   

In the next piece I look more closely at these observations and whether they are reasonable. Till next time.

*The URA provides information on every registered lease including project name, month of lease, monthly rent, unit size range and number of bedrooms.   Unfortunately the length of each lease is not provided. 

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PropertyGuru’s Property Index aggregates and indexes data from our over 200,000 residential property listings in Singapore to demonstrate the movement of supply side pricing. It provides a view on seller optimism and indicates the price level that real estate developers and homeowners feel they can fetch for their respective properties.

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The PropertyGuru Property Index (Price) dropped by 2.9 percent in the last quarter of 2018, marking the first quarterly decline since the new cooling measures took effect in July.

This comes at a time when many new launches are expected to hit the market in the first quarter of 2019. These upcoming launches are likely to be priced more competitively, offering good deals to property seekers.

At the same time, mortgage interest rates, which were rising steadily last year, may start to drop. This coupled with stable economic growth will boost home buying sentiment.

But global headwinds remain, including the slowdown in China’s economy and US government shutdown.

What does this mean for property buyers, sellers, and investors going forward? Download the full report and Get the Guru View.

Click to download the full size infographic!

PropertyGuru’s Property Index aggregates and indexes data from our over 200,000 residential property listings in Singapore to demonstrate the movement of supply side pricing. It provides a view on seller optimism and indicates the price level that real estate developers and homeowners feel they can fetch for their respective properties.

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Get more insights on the locations with the highest price growth potential at AreaInsider. For helpful tips on the buying, selling and renting property, check out our Guides and Resources. 

A new condominium project on the former Pearlbank Apartments en bloc site in Outram is expected to launch next year.

The private housing supply in Singapore is expected to surge next year as $10.5 billion worth of en bloc deals were concluded in the first half of 2018, with many of the sites expected to launch next year, according to the PropertyGuru Property Market Outlook 2019.

This includes the highly anticipated Pearlbank Apartments in Outram, which was acquired for $728 million by CapitaLand and Parkway Mansion in River Valley, which was sold to a GuocoLand-led consortium for $938 million.

Latest data from PropertyGuru shows that supply also jumped 58.7 percent in Q3 2018 from the previous quarter. This comes as over 3,000 housing units from several mega projects were launched during the period, namely Riverfront Residences in Hougang, Affinity at Serangoon and JadeScape within the Marymount area.

Get more details on the property market outlook for 2019 here

At the same time, asking prices of private homes continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace, following the government’s recent introduction of property cooling measures in July.

PropertyGuru data revealed that private home prices rose 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3 and 9.4 percent year-on-year.

City fringe districts 12, 13 and 14 posted the highest quarterly increase in prices at 12.6 percent, primarily due to the launch of several mid-market condos like The Tre Ver in Potong Pasir and Park Colonial next to Woodleigh MRT station.

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The Tre Ver sold 140 units within hours during its launch in August at an average price of $1,550 psf – which is lower compared to other nearby projects. About 6,000 people thronged the project’s showflat during its preview – indicating that there is still underlying demand for projects that are centrally located and attractively priced.

Meanwhile, rentals of private homes across Singapore have been on a slow upward trend – rising 0.3 percent in Q3 from 1.0 percent previously.

The recovery in the rental market is partly attributed to the improved vacancy rate, which dipped to 6.8 percent in Q3 from 7.1 percent in the previous quarter, according to URA data.

Despite this, it is expected to remain a tenants’ market next year as over 10,000 condo units are slated to enter the market, offering renters more housing choices.

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To know more about the property hotspots for 2019, check out PropertyGuru AreaInsider

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While cooling measures in July might have arrested the momentum of the private residential market, prices continue to move upwards. The PropertyGuru Property Index showed a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.4 percent in private home prices in Singapore, and a 9.4 percent increase year-on-year from the same period in 2017.

Even as supply-side pricing looks to continue increasing, albeit at a slower pace, macroeconomic factors, such as rising interest rates, also pose concerns for home buyers.

What does this mean for property buyers, sellers, and investors going forward? Download the full report and Get the Guru View.

PropertyGuru’s Property Index aggregates and indexes data from our over 200,000 residential property listings in Singapore to demonstrate the movement of supply side pricing. It provides a view on seller optimism and indicates the price level that real estate developers and homeowners feel they can fetch for their respective properties.

Download the full report now!

This article was written by Chang Hui Chew. Get more insights on the locations with the highest price growth potential at AreaInsider. For helpful tips on the buying, selling and renting property, check out our Guides and Resources. 

Analysis

The PropertyGuru Property Index (Singapore, Price) rose by 3.4 percent to 102.6 in Q1 2018 from 99.2 in the previous quarter. This marks the fourth straight quarter of increases in supply pricing. On a yearly basis, the Index jumped by 9.3 percent from Q1 2017.

Several factors have influenced sellers to raise their asking prices, such as developers’ confident land bids, high demand for properties and a general fervour around en bloc property.

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Executive Summary

– Close to 10,000 private homes are expected to be completed in 2018, which will add to the vacancy rate.

– The Core Central Region had the highest vacancy rate of 10.9 percent in Q3 2017. This will put further pressure on rental prices in the city area.

– There could be as many as 16 to 22 major new launches next year. Given the higher land prices and anticipated market recovery, new private home prices will likely be higher in 2018.

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Has stability returned to the HDB resale market?

Resale HDB flat prices continued to fall in 2016, but only slightly, an indication that prices have largely stabilised. This has led to increased demand for resale flats, especially larger units. Meanwhile, the supply of a new crop of BTO flats this year will also exert more pressure on resale prices.

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Are we seeing green shoots emerging?

Sales of private units were up in 2016 and the number of unsold units has been falling. For 2017, private home prices will continue to fall, albeit at a slower pace. The number of unsold units will decline further, especially in the prime segment of the market. Eager home buyers waiting on the sidelines will see this as a sign that it may be a good time to enter the market.

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Has the Singapore private residential market hit the bottom of its trough?

With the close of the first half of 2016, the next half of 2016 for the private residential market looked mixed with challenges, both domestically and internationally, for investors as they ponder their next moves. The first half of 2016 saw a total of 3,270 new homes sold (excluding executive condominiums) as of May, along with 3,295 new home launches. This brings the overall take up rate of 99.2 per cent.

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Public housing is on the road to recovery.

The number of completed Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats has grown exponentially from 53,777 units in 1960-1965 to around 1.08 million units as of March 2015, with total bookings of HDB flats standing at 21,002 units, and the total volume of resale transactions numbered around 17,673 in 2015. The demand for public housing is growing as homeowners find them affordable, along with the housing grants and incentives handed out by the government.

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The iconic Pinnacle @ Duxton has led to an uptick in million dollar flats sold per quarter.

As we see recurring headlines of sky-high resale HDB transactions, should Singaporeans worry that such prices are becoming mainstream? We take a look in this issue of the Guru View.

By Chang Hui Chew

As we were doing the research for this article, two resale HDB flats, one in Boon Keng and the other in Clementi, sold for record prices. The Clementi unit, part of a HDB mixed-use development above Clementi Mall, sold for just over $1 million. The Boon Keng unit sold for $1.1 million, the current record for a 5-room HDB flat. These prices run counter to the argument that only rare, city centre flats like Pinnacle @ Duxton can command such prices.

These headlines make the news because the numbers are simply mind-boggling. An asset, one’s home, that is ostensibly a state-subsidised home, likely bought with grants, has made these homeowners overnight millionaires. Furthermore, Clementi is part of the suburban heartlands, eight MRT stops away from the city centre and Tanjong Pagar where the Pinnacle is located, if one wanted to be pedantic about it.

Perhaps one of the reasons why these headlines cause so much furor is that these are supposed to be affordable public housing, and most Singaporean families would be hard-pressed to muster even half of a million dollars for their home purchases. The situation begins to beg the question: “Is even public housing becoming unaffordable?”

Many commenters on PropertyGuru’s social media channels have said when such stories appear, that it is a case of “willing seller, willing buyer”. A seller decides that the property they want to put on the market is worth this price and a buyer is willing and able to meet that price.

Let’s therefore take a look at the numbers, and see how the situation bears out.

By the numbers

We’ll use $900,000 as the benchmark for sky-high prices, rather than $1,000,000. This is because we understand that many sellers would set prices at the “magic” price of $1,000,000, but are often negotiated down. This is especially so in a market where the government has implemented the Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) of 30 percent of the borrowers’ gross monthly salary, regardless of whether the loan was taken from the HDB, or banks and financial institutions.

Figure 1 shows the number of resale flats per quarter since 2012, split by flat type. Interestingly, prior to 2015, volumes of resale flats exchanging hands for more than $900,000 were less. Most of these were executive flats (including executive maisonettes) or 5-room units, with a large bulk from the city fringe estates of Queenstown and Bishan.

After 2015, these numbers climbed sharply, with Q1 2015 seeing a whopping 760 percent increase from the same period in Q1 2014. This was due to units at the landmark Pinnacle @ Duxton completing their Minimum Occupation Period (MOP), and homeowners with an eye to profit going to market with extremely high prices.

From 2015 onwards, we also began to see 4-room resale flats begin to transact in this price bracket, a first for this property class, due to Pinnacle units placed on the market at these prices.

This year on

Looking at the first six months of this year, some towns outside of the city centre are starting to see units being sold above the $900,000 mark. Figure 3 shows the percentage split of HDB estates with flats above $900,000 in the first two quarters of 2016.

Kallang Whampoa is already seeing median prices above half a million for resale flats.  However, with the Design Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flats such as City View at Boon Keng completing their MOP, homeowners are putting their units on the market, asking for prices that exceed even a million dollars.

At time of writing, there were about 48 listings on PropertyGuru for this DBSS project, with asking prices starting at around $840,000 for a 4-room flat. Furthermore, with news of a 5-room flat on a high floor at the project commanding the highest price on record for a HDB flat at $1,100,000, homeowners are likely to ask for increasingly higher prices.

Market watchers have suggested that City View’s price premium might be justified by the project’s proximity to the city, coupled with the conveniences and amenities of a suburban estate as well as proximity to Boon Keng’s MRT station. Furthermore, the project also has views of the National Day fireworks and even Marina Bay Sands.

PropertyGuru also understands that several of the buyers of such expensive flats tend to be older, and moving from private property to HDBs. By cashing out of their private properties, these buyers have the wherewithal to purchase these flats at locations that they like, perhaps in order to be closer to their married offspring and grandchildren.

As an estate, Boon Keng’s prices, while surprising, might not necessarily come out of the blue. After all, the pros of the location are tangible and arguably worth the premium. In contrast, Clementi, a much further estate to the west of Singapore, has also seen resale prices above $900,000.

In June, a unit at Casa Clementi along Clementi Avenue 1 sold for $960,000. More recently in August, another unit at the same project sold for $916,000. Casa Clementi, which consists of over 2,200 units, has won awards for its unique concept, an elevated sky park above the multi-storey carpark that connects all the blocks in the estate. However, the project is further from Clementi MRT station.

While the number of flats selling at startling prices has indeed climbed, this might not be as alarming as you think. Figure 2 shows the percentage of flats that exceed $900,000 being sold in a year. While the numbers are showing a marked increase year-on-year, home buyers can take comfort from the fact that these numbers are still below one percent of all flats transacted in a single year.

The way forward

Even if these expensive resale flats are the statistical outliers in the overall scheme of things, does this warrant the government stepping in to curb the prices of these flats?

To answer this, it might be necessary to look back at why the government scrapped Cash-Over-Valuation (COV). In 2014, to prevent a series of escalating prices, the state removed COV figures from negotiations. This allowed buyers and sellers to agree upon a selling price, before going to the HDB to seek a valuation. To help buyers and sellers better determine prices, the HDB began to publish resale prices daily, so that negotiations are based on actual transacted values.

However, we can see today that this policy did not cause a shift in the behaviour of flat sellers, i.e., wanting to sell for above what the last person did. Hence, while these measures did prevent escalating COV prices, especially in a lukewarm market, this did not stop sellers from asking for prices higher than the last published transaction prices.

While a knee-jerk reaction might be to cease the publication of prices, we think that complicating or decreasing transparency cannot be the way to go. However, what is needed is more than the simple publication of transaction prices, which allows sellers to immediately focus on the outliers, the highest amounts, and use that as the starting price for negotiations.

Instead, what the system needs is for buyers and sellers to negotiate based on overall trends. Many third-party websites, including PropertyGuru, publish the price trends for property transactions based on the district and property type. By negotiating using aggregate data, buyers and sellers are better placed to come to a fair price that reflects market conditions, rather a simplistic one-upmanship over the previous high price.

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Overall, satisfaction with the Singapore local property markets has improved since previous years but remains relatively low due to high property prices, Purchase intent has improved over time, and is particularly high for private apartments / condominiums.

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