Tag Archives: Property Investment

S’pore property investments up sharply in Q4

Property investment volumes in Singapore’s residential sector rose 14.8 percent to $1.69 billion in Q4 2015 from $1.47 billion in the previous quarter, revealed a Colliers International report.

“The $999.98 million transacted from the sale of three public residential state land parcels helped sustain the overall investment sales value for the residential sector during the final quarter, enabling it to claim its second top spot on the quarter’s sales chart with a market share of 28.4 percent.”

The total value of property investments in Singapore stood at $5.96 billion in Q4 2015, up 39.3 percent from Q4 2014.

In the private residential market, investment sales amounted to $688.83 million in the last three months of 2015. The good class bungalow (GCB) segment led the activity in this sector, with nine GCB transactions worth $160.67 million recorded during the period under review.

“Overall, the transactions involving large landed homes (with each worth above $5 million) contributed 70.1 percent of the $662.75 million accumulated in the private residential sector.”

Colliers noted that the most significant transaction was a two-storey freehold GCB at 61 Dalvey Road. Sold for $26 million, the bungalow is situated on an elevated plot opposite the Israeli Embassy and features five bedrooms and a swimming pool.

Meanwhile, no collective sales were recorded in Q4 2015 as tighter regulations softened end-user demand.

“Collective home sellers, on the other hand, are generally still holding on to their high asking prices. This mismatch in price expectation will likely stall the collective sales market in 2016.”

The consultancy expects public land sales this year to fall below 2015’s level as the government cuts back on public land supply.

“Given that a lower supply of land is available through the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, the public sector’s contribution to the total investment sales value in 2016 is likely to fall below the $5.27 billion concluded in 2015.”

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Danger lurks when property consultants also trade

PROPERTY consultants may be tempted to invest in real estate, but to be a good consultant, one needs to be somewhat detached and not get carried away, says a veteran in the business.

“Some of them think that with the knowledge they have, it is a sure thing; so they start to take positions. They may get carried away and start trading in property. But in their job as a property consultant, they are not supposed to do that,” says Knight Frank Singapore’s executive chairman, Tan Tiong Cheng, when asked to offer advice to those planning a career as a property consultant.

Apart from clouded judgement, there could also be potential conflict of interest issues.

“As a property consultant or as an agent, you are supposed to serve your client, yet there have been cases where the agent took a position by buying the property from the client,” said Mr Tan.

He attributes Singaporeans’ keen interest in property to the state’s policy of encouraging home ownership, initiated decades ago. In itself, this is a good objective.

But with home ownership at very high levels, Singapore having limited land and Singaporeans seeming to think that the government always gets them out of difficult situations, the preoccupation with property investment could become excessive.

His advice to anyone looking for their dream home is: “When buying a property, the most important thing is to make sure that should you decide this is not your dream home, you are able to find other people who think it is their dream home.”

“Whatever property you buy, just make sure that there is a pool of similar-minded people, so that if you change your mind, you can offload it.”