Fleeing the icy grip of the local property market, Singapore has become the largest Asian buyer of overseas properties in the nine months to September 2014, according to media reports.
In fact, the volume of transactions by Singapore-based developers tripled to US$2.32 billion in the first three quarters of the year compared to the same period in 2013, figures from Real Capital Analytics (RCA) revealed.
Transactions include CDL’s purchase of a land parcel in Tokyo (pictured) for US$279 million in September, while Keppel Land embarked on its first acquisition in the US when it acquired a prime residential project in Manhattan’s Upper East Side for US$70 million last July.
Luxury residential developer Ho Bee is also on the lookout for other acquisitions in London and Sydney, commented its Executive Director Desmond Woon. “With the government measures in place, it has become very hard to do development of residential properties,” he said.
Terence Tang, Colliers International’s Managing Director of capital markets and investment services noted that “many Asian countries such as Singapore are facing property cooling measures at home, so they (developers) are venturing to Western markets where they can find returns and are seeing a strong recovery.”
As a result, the city-state emerged as the most prolific Asian buyer of overseas property so far this year, figures from RCA show.
In total, Singaporean companies pumped US$9.8 billion into commercial real estate in other countries, surpassing China’s US$8.4 billion and Hong Kong with US$7.3 billion, added the New York-based research firm specialising in commercial property.
Photo by CDL.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor of PropertyGuru Group, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
