A growing number of foreigners, particularly those from China are streaming back into the private home market.
Recent research conducted by Savills Singapore, a property consultancy, showed that foreign buyers accounted for 22.7 percent of private home sales in the third quarter. The sales are more than the 19.7 percent average since the beginning of 2000.
With a contribution of almost 15 percent of the total foreign purchases, Chinese buyers have taken the No. 3 position in the rankings this year, dislodging those from India. This places China just behind Indonesia in the No. 2 spot and Malaysia in the first spot.
Two years ago, India had been in the No. 3 spot, but it went to the No. 4 spot this year.
Buyers from Myanmar came in at eighth spot although they failed to make it to the top 10 the previous year, and were only at No. 10 in 2007.
For the July to September period, foreign buyers, including permanent residents, lodged 2,448 caveats for private homes, a primary move to purchasing a home.
Based on the data that Savills compiled, the volume of caveats for the third quarter is up from 1,807 caveats during the second quarter and just 498 in the first quarter.
Overall, permanent residents purchased a total of 1,389 homes in Q3 this year.
Based on the preliminary data from DTZ for Q3, it showed that foreign buyers accounted for around 25 percent of total private home sales, compared to the boom of 2007 with about 33 percent.
Sophia Residence, a project which was launched in July was one of the most popular projects sought after by foreigners. Other projects popular with foreign buyers include One Devonshire, Caribbean at Keppel Bay, Viva and Ascentia Sky.