The fallout from the US sub-prime crisis has filtered down to the property market in Singapore.
Property consultancy CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) says total investment sales in Singapore properties fell 70 per cent from 2007, to S$17.83 billion this year.
CBRE says one year on, the crisis in the US has made investors of Singapore properties more cautious.
But the sharp slowdown in transaction volumes was also because developers and investors had trouble getting financing on favourable terms.
Private investment sales accounted for about three quarters all investment sales in 2008.
Sales in this segment came in at S$13.16 billion or almost 70 per cent lower than in 2007.
Investment sales in the public sector made up the remainder of the total, coming in at S$4.67 billion — down 60 per cent on-year.
CBRE says total investment sales for residential properties, including Good Class Bungalows, fell 81 per cent from last year’s record high to S$6.25 billion.
Investment sales for offices also fell, down 38 per cent to S$5.39 billion.
But investment sales in industrial properties bucked the downtrend and recorded a 66 per cent jump from 2007 to S$3.32 billion.
CBRE’s executive director Jeremy Lake says this uptrend is expected.
“Historically, the industrial market has lagged the office market, as witnessed by the large volume of office transaction last year. A lot of investors have been looking at that sector to gain exposure.”
For 2009, Mr Lake believes the investment sales market will remain quiet in the first six months as buyers adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 12 Dec 2008