There are still no signs that Singapore government would relax the cooling measures. In a report by Business Times, based on the latest NUS – Redas Real Estate Sentiment Index, property developers in Singapore remain pessimistic over the current state of the residential market and its outlook. I think similar surveys done by REHDA Malaysia has revealed similar results. Some selective stats include the following. 58.4 percent of respondents believe that market conditions will deteriorate further because of the government’s stance on not changing any of the current cooling measures. 47.2 percent expect home prices to marginally soften over the next six months. In brief, the expectations from the real estate community is negative.
This was however not the case based on Knight Frank’s latest Prime Global Cities Index. Here, it was revealed that Singapore’s house prices rose 5.4 percent in Q1 2016 compared to a year ago. Its Research Head Alice Tan said, “The annual price increase signals ‘green shoots of recovery’ for the ultra-luxury segment, as high-net worth individuals see rising value proposition for Singapore luxury homes after a prolonged two-year period of price declines.” One key reason was because of wealthy buyers returning to the Singapore home market and the confidence they have with the country’s long-term outlook. Singapore has always been regarded as safe haven and having stable economic fundamentals.
Could the property market be such? Some latest prices in the image. Actually, it is during a slowdown that a lot of value emerges, especially for the wealthy buyers. In terms of the modest property price increase, it may also because flower transactions for the lower valued homes while the higher end ones continue to be sold. Even in Malaysia, the sales of luxury cars were up in 2015 and is still up in the first few months of 2016. Sad to say but true. Richer will always become richer because of the investments they do while the poorer majority will remain poor because of the things they do not do. Always note, doing nothing is not considered an investment strategy. Happy believing.
written on 13 May 2016
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