Last year marked a historical high for foreign property buyers in Singapore, led by mainland Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians and Indians, according to property consultancy Savills Singapore.
Compared to all other foreign buyers, Indonesians had generally larger budgets, dominating the Core Central Region (CCR). As the number of both Malaysian and Indian buyers increase, their budgets have also grown bigger.
Mainland Chinese topped all foreign purchases with 28 percent, followed by Malaysians (20 percent), Indonesians (18 percent) and Indians (12 percent).
“Mainland Chinese bought the most private homes in the Outside Central Region (OCR) (31 percent of all foreign purchases in the (OCR) followed by Malaysians (22 percent),” noted Savills.
In the Rest of Central Region (RCR), mainland Chinese were also the top buyers at 27 percent, while Malaysians followed close behind with 20 percent. In the CCR, foreign buying was dominated by Indonesians at 30 percent, while mainland Chinese claimed 20 percent.
The research noted that the leading foreign buyers showed varying investment preferences and purchasing powers over the years. “More particularly, their buying behaviour will likely be impacted by the new property measures implemented on 8 December 2011, although in differing degrees,” it added.
Moving forward, with foreigners taking 43 percent of all prime home sales in 2011, the additional buyers’ stamp duty (ABSD) is expected to hit the luxury segment the hardest. Indonesians will likely take a step back, as they constituted the majority of luxury segment buyers.
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