Singapore’s property investment sales market suffered in the first quarter of 2012, dropping 45.9 percent to S$4.97 billion during the period, from S$9.18 billion in Q4 2011, according to Colliers International.
“This came about as investors retreated to the sidelines amid an environment clouded by uncertainties spanning from global economic prospects to real estate development and investment policy changes such as the imposition of an additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) for residential purchases and minimum unit size for certain industrial developments,” said the consultancy.
The sharp decline was led by a 55.3 percent fall in private sector sales to S$2.78 billion, down from S$6.22 billion in deals recorded during the previous quarter.
“Private sector property investment sales, in turn, were dragged down by the 80.8 percent plunge in commercial deals to S$621.68 million, from the S$3.24 billion garnered in the preceding quarter.”
Colliers noted that the absence of mega deals, such as last quarter’s S$2.01 billion transaction between Keppel Land and K-REIT Asia for the stake in Ocean Financial Centre, led to the fall in private sector commercial sales.
Although the public sector recorded a 25.7 percent decline in investment sales, the S$2.20 billion generated during the quarter is a healthy result considering it was amassed from the sale of only eight land parcels from the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme.
“Developers who continued with their land banking activities for less cumbersome and more straightforward sales of state land parcels in the public sector were, however, less affected by the latest set of cooling measures,” noted Colliers.
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