Expert Corner

Singapore property is likely to retain its lustre as a preferred choice for long-term wealth creation due to the city-state's regional hub status, solid growth prospects and Asians' deep-seated desire to own property. Analysts gave this affirmation as the dust starts to settle on the latest cooling measures which took effect on July 6. The amended rules saw higher Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD)...

In recent months, increasing social mixing in public housing estates has been suggested as a way to reduce social stratification and inequality in Singapore. This can be done, for instance, by integrating HDB rental and sold flats within individual blocks. Housing inequality mirrors wider economic inequality. Particular housing policies furthers the gap between the housing standards accessible to people...

SINGAPORE is a wealthy country with an abundance of investment capital and a limited domestic investment universe. As a result, Singapore-based investors are one of the most active sources of outbound capital globally, targeting the world's most liquid real estate markets. Since the end of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008, Singaporean investors have exported S$154.4 billion, according to data...

AS a result of many rounds of cooling measures, the private residential real estate market has been weakening for the past three years. However, according to the latest quarterly statistics released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), private home prices may be showing signs of bottoming out. Generally, the residential non-landed housing market in Singapore can be divided into three segments...

AN old adage in real estate investment - "location, location, location" - suggests that real estate investors should focus more on the location than the physical attributes, tenure and stage of the market cycle. Given that each property is a unique and non-movable asset, prices at choice locations will be more resilient in an uncertain economy and will appreciate more than other assets when the...

BEING the crème de la crème of the non-landed residential market, homes in the Core Central Region (CCR) are commonly referred to as high-end or luxury homes. According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the CCR comprises postal districts 9, 10, 11, Downtown Core and Sentosa. The URA CCR Non-Landed Residential Price Index rose 0.3 per cent quarter on quarter (q-o-q) in Q2 2016, marking a...

In this column, Bernard Tong, managing director of The Edge Property, assesses the advantages of buying a new condo as soon as it is launched versus waiting for the initial buzz to die off. Gem Residences was the most-talked about property launch last month, for some positive and not-so-positive reasons. The Toa Payoh condominium sold 300 units, slightly more than 50 per cent of the entire...

THE first part of this article ("Singapore property may be heading for long-term drop in value", BT, April 20) touched on three of the six "defects" in our property market that might lead to a long-term decline in property values. The first three points are: the issue of demand being exhausted with the last six years of massive supply; the Additional Buyer Stamp Duty; and the Total Debt Service Ratio...

While it is true that it is a fool’s errand to try to time the property market, you can certainly buy at a dip. In fact, that is what you are supposed to do: Buy low and sell high. It is very human in a down market to want to buy at the absolute lowest point. The problem, though, is that no one can identify the bottom until after the fact. How many people have you met who regret not buying in 1998...

Demand for Executive Condominiums (EC) has slowed sharply in the past two years, following the introduction of cooling measures by the Government. Demand for the hybrid housing type was red hot in 2012 to 2013, when 14 out of 16 new EC projects were at least 33 per cent sold within the first month of their launches. To cool the EC market, the Government implemented measures in late 2013, including a 30...