Most of the private home buyers in Singapore are still made up of local Singaporeans, with permanent residents (PRs) comprising 13 percent and foreigners 12 percent of total sales in the second quarter.
Also, speculative activity in the private property market is driven mostly by Singaporeans. PRs and foreigners only accounted for about 27 percent of the entire sub-sale market since 2008.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan revealed the figures yesterday in Parliament after several MPs asked if foreigners and PRs were driving up property prices in Singapore.
Mr. Mah noted that the Q2 estimate of home sales were close to the average 10 percent and 12 per cent for foreigners and PRs respectively.
He added that being a cosmopolitan city, it is important for Singaporeans to let PRs and foreigners acquire properties in the country, while monitoring “how much of the market is actually made up of foreigners and PRs.”