Singaporean property investors are already looking overseas in ever larger numbers after the introduction of the most recent attempts to cool the local market earlier this month.
Developers and agents reported raised levels of interest and strong sales at the 14 overseas property exhibitions which took place last weekend. Although no official records are kept for the number of Singaporeans buying overseas, PropertyGuru estimates that it is likely more than 350 deals were done over the two days.
Richard Levene, Director of International Properties South East Asia for Colliers International, said: “This weekend we’ve certainly seen potential buyers who are looking overseas for the first time.”
Levene, who spoke to PropertyGuru at a London property exhibition featuring The Arc and Watermark E14, also predicted the number of overseas projects that his company handles will increase this year.
Michael Bok, Group Director for Singapore agency Trillion, also noted more interest from Singaporeans in overseas property investment as a result of the cooling measures.
Bok’s company was exhibiting Bangkok condominium project TC Green. He told PropertyGuru: “In the past year we saw more people looking at Bangkok, and now we’re seeing people who previously weren’t considering overseas investments. They are telling us it’s a result of the cooling measures.”
Stephen Ho, Director for International Project Marketing Asia for CBRE, also noted an upturn in interest. He said: “We’ve seen a few new people who were previously not considering overseas property investments.” Ho spoke to PropertyGuru at an exhibition for the Asia launch of Fulham Riverside.
By far the largest number of sales recorded last weekend was by Battersea Power Station, where more than 100 deals were done on Saturday alone.
A Knight Frank research report published last week revealed that Singaporeans were the top overseas buyers of new-build property in central London last year, accounting for 23 percent of all transactions.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, attended seven overseas property exhibitions last weekend. He said: “Last week we predicted that interest in overseas property investments will increase, and that’s certainly something we are already witnessing. The events that I attended were busier than normal and there was a definite buzz that I’ve not seen before.”
Source : PropertyGuru – 21 Jan 2013