Despite the skyrocketing property prices in Singapore and the economic uncertainty in Europe, many Singaporeans are still interested to invest in the property market.
A recent survey conducted by PropertyGuru, the largest online property site in Singapore, showed that seven out of ten potential homebuyers will purchase a property in the next 24 months.
The survey also showed that 58 percent of over 2,200 people questioned said that the government is not implementing enough measures to cool down property prices.
While public housing flats have enjoyed the good demand since the second half of last year, private residential units remain a hot property in the country, with a bumper sale of 2,207 new units sold last month.
Announcing the survey result during the Cityscape Conference, PropertyGuru said that market sentiment in the country remain strong.
"Some of the drivers for that are the interest rates are still low – so cost of borrowing is very low – and people’s general wealth has continued increasing,” said Steve Melhuish, CEO of PropertyGuru.
"So if you look at just HDB, prices have increased 45 per cent in the last three years, so if you bought a HDB (flat) three years ago, you will be 45 per cent better off in terms of value of property."
Propertyguru’s survey also showed that four out of ten Singaporeans plan to upgrade their flats in the next 12 months, while 75 percent of property hunters hope to purchase a property in the next two years.
The company added that only seven percent of the respondents plan to downgrade into a smaller unit. It added that most of the respondents felt that home prices in the country are too expensive.
"But what was interesting in our survey, which was actually conducted after all these government measures, was that 75 per cent of those surveyed said property prices were still unaffordable and still too expensive,” said Mr. Melhuish.
"And out of those people who said that, 58 per cent said that the government measures to cool the market were not enough and they wanted to see even tougher measures to cool the market down."