The number of landed homes in Singapore purchased by foreigners and permanent residents, increased to 81 in Q2 from 69 in Q1, the strongest quarterly showing since the second quarter of 2007, based on the analysis of URA Realis caveats information up to July 30, which was conducted by Knight Frank.
District 15, which includes East Coast Road, Telok Kurau and Katong, surpassed District 4, where transactions were mainly at Sentosa Cave, as the most popular district among foreigners.
While foreigners purchased more landed homes in Q2 compared with the previous quarter, they acquired fewer condos and private apartments, with figures declining 7.4 percent to 2,093 units in Q2 from 2,261 in Q1, according to Knight Frank.
However, Singaporeans acquired more non-landed private homes, from 5,315 in Q1 to 5,732 in Q2.
The strong interest of foreigners in landed homes mirrors their growing recognition of these assets as prized commodities in the land-scarce country, said Mr. Tan Tiong Cheng, chairman of Knight Frank.
“The increased interest is not surprising as landed housing offers many foreigners a lifestyle closer to what they are used to in their home country,” said Mr. Tan. “The added attraction is that Singapore is a very safe place, so landed housing is as secure as, say, a gated community.”
Permanent residents (PRs), after staying in Singapore for some years, tend to realise it’s worth of making investments in landed property, said William Wong, managing director of RealStar Premier Property, who spoke to The Business Times.
“Bungalow prices (on per square foot of land basis) are still lower than apartment and condo prices on psf of strata area in the same location,” he said.
“On top of that, the supply of landed homes is more limited than that of condos and apartments. Landed homes also tend to maintain their value better, as the main component of a bungalow’s value would be the land it sits on, whereas apartment and condo values may depreciate faster as the property ages.”
Transactions for landed property began to pick up in the June-July period, following a sluggish period in March to May. “In District 15, bungalows in the Mountbatten and Meyer road areas can easily sell for about $1,000-1,100 psf of land today, compared with around $900 psf towards the end of 2009,” added Mr. Wong.
“In District 10, say in Coronation Road or Namly Avenue, a bungalow may cost about $1,200-$1,300 psf-plus today, up from $1,000-1,100 psf late last year.”
The report also showed that the share of total landed home purchases of foreigners in Singapore increased to nearly 7 percent in the April-June period from 6.3 percent in the January-March period.
The 150 landed homes purchased by foreigners in H1 this year made up about 6.6 percent of landed home transactions in the period.