More homes were sold in Singapore last month than at any point since 2021

Name: Singapore government doubles residential property tax for foreigners to 60 per cent
Uploaded: 2023-08-15T06:03:59.000Z
Duration: 1 min 37 s
Description: Singapore government doubles residential property tax for foreigners to 60 per cent

Purchases of new private apartments in the city state jumped fivefold in July, to the most since Singapore eased Covid travel curbs in November 2021

It was partly driven by developers bringing forward launches to avoid the ‘inauspicious’ seventh month of the lunar calendar, one property agent said

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Private homes in the Tanglin area of Singapore. Purchases of new private flats jumped fivefold to 1,412 units in July from 278 the previous month, figures released on Tuesday show. Photo: Bloomberg

Bloomberg

Published: 2:03pm, 15 Aug 2023

Singapore’s home sales rebounded last month to the highest level in more than a year, as buyers brushed aside rising interest rates and the government’s latest cooling measures.

Purchases of new private flats jumped fivefold to 1,412 units in July from 278 the previous month, figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed on Tuesday. That’s the most since November 2021, when more than 1,500 homes were sold after the city state eased Covid-era travel restrictions.

Singapore’s housing market has remained buoyant even as other countries from Canada to the UK struggle with slumping sales due to rising borrowing costs and inflation. But the red-hot market has shown signs of easing, with private home prices falling for the first time in three years in the second quarter.

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Singapore government doubles residential property tax for foreigners to 60 per cent

Developments launched in July saw robust sales. The 1,008-unit Grand Dunman sold more than half of its flats last month. Lentor Hills Residences – a joint venture by Hong Leong Holdings Ltd. and others – offloaded 55 per cent of its 598 units in July.

“Developers brought forward their sales launches ahead of the lunar seventh month, which is deemed by some buyers to be an inauspicious period to make a big-ticket item purchase,” said Christine Sun, senior vice president of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie. August sales may be lower due to a lack of large project launches, and figures in the remaining months are likely to be “volatile”, she said.

In April, the government doubled stamp duties for foreign buyers to 60 per cent – the highest among major markets – and also raised levies for second-home buyers. Since then, local buyers have spurred the bulk of sales. The portion of new private flats bought by Singaporeans reached an almost two-year high at 85 per cent in the second quarter, according to Singapore-based PropNex Realty’s analysis of data.

While local buyers remain undeterred, total foreign purchasing of new private flats in the second quarter slumped by 23 per cent to 109 units, from 141 in the previous three months, PropNex said.