Foreign buyers have shown renewed interest towards non-landed private homes in Singapore, after a decline in demand due to the additional stamp duty imposed last December.
In Q2 2012, Malaysians accounted for the largest share of foreign buyers in Singapore at 6.3 percent, while the Indonesians, Chinese and Indians came in at 4.7, 4.4 and 3.0 percent respectively.
Indonesians showed the most notable increase in transactions to 391 in Q2 compared to Q1’s 247. Meanwhile, 521 transactions were closed by Malaysians in Q2 from 398 in Q1.
As for Chinese buyers, transactions grew to 365 in Q2 from 311 in Q1, while Indians achieved 252 in Q2 from 173 previously.
Commenting on the foreign buying trends, Alan Cheong, Research Head at Savills Singapore, noted that the number of “Chinese buyers fell the most in Q1. Indonesian buying also fell sharply in Q1”.
However, Malaysian buyers were still “a stable feature in the marketplace”.
Overall, 8,311 transactions (including sales to Singaporeans) were recorded in Q2, up 37.2 percent from 6,059 transactions in Q1. Of these, 23.58 percent were accounted for by foreigners compared to 22.96 percent previously.
Moreover, data from July to 23 August showed that foreigner share grew to 27.06 percent.
“It appears that the market for foreign buyers has stabilised in Q2 2012 and is beginning to pick up again from data obtained in July to 23 August. We believe that foreign demand is returning,” said Cheong.
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