Singapore’s economy contracted 13.2 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, leading the Government to downgrade its forecast for the country’s gross domestic product to shrink between 5 and 7 per cent, instead of between 4 and 7 per cent. This would be the nation’s worst recession since independence. It’s also not a pretty picture on the job front. A total of 11,350 people were laid off...
Expert Corner
Prices of private homes in Singapore are expected to rise by between 1 and 5 per cent this year, analysts say, after clocking a 2.5 per cent gain in 2019. At 2.5 per cent, the price growth moderated from the 7.9 per cent clip in 2018, the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) flash estimate showed. For the fourth quarter of 2019, the overall price index for private homes was up 0.3 per cent - led by...
2019 was a busy year for the Ministry of National Development, with several major announcements related to housing policies. Advertisement Analysts told TODAY that they expect 2020 to be a “quiet year” with few to no policy changes, especially with a General Election around the corner — it has to be called by April 2021. Mr Nicholas Mak, the head of research and consultancy at real estate...
Singapore's property market has been nothing but resilient in 2019. In particular, the residential primary sales market stood out as demand strengthened in the second half of the year even as trade tensions between the United States and China escalated, and the 2019 economic outlook for Singapore dimmed. Developers sold 29 per cent more new homes in the five months between July and November 2019,...
With private property prices increasing at a faster rate than wage growth, property experts are saying that the affordability gap for private homes could further widen for Singaporeans. Professor Sumit Agarwal from the National University of Singapore Business School said that the divide between income growth and residential property price increases could grow bigger, with technology set to displace...
A new research by the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that the type of housing owned by Singaporean parents, along with the city-state's housing policies, can significantly influence the next generation's economic status. According to the study, children from low-income families, defined as those with parents in the bottom 60th percentile nationally, show upward mobility in housing...
Two straight quarters of increases in the overall private home price index of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) have sparked a debate on whether this might prompt the authorities to respond with more measures to cool down the property market. Barclays' regional economist Brian Tan thinks the risk of more cooling measures has risen to "a relatively high level", and that the government could act...
The market share of the Singapore residential property market sold by Chinese developers has surged since 2015, NUS Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies’ Sing Tien Foo and Chia Liu Ee say. After the cooling measures slapped on in July 2018, many have wondered whether Singapore property remains a good investment bet. To be sure, the measures targeted speculators and hot foreign money, and...
Old flats - once the storehouse of wealth for owners should their homes be chosen for en-bloc redevelopment - have become a source of anxiety for residents after the government two years ago cautioned against speculation of state buyouts of these assets. The idea that the value of one's home can eventually run down to zero is a terrifying thought, one which increasingly more researchers are studying in an...
The redevelopment of ageing properties is an important stage in the life cycle of urbanised cities with limited land supply. For a small country like Singapore, when houses built in the country’s early years age, redevelopment becomes increasingly pertinent both from an economic and urban renewal perspective. Ageing houses, if not redeveloped, have significant implications for the community and...