Property analysts believe that Singapore’s housing market is bottoming out.
LaSalle Investment Management believes that Singapore’s real estate market could reach its lowest level sooner than Hong Kong, reported Bloomberg.
Government officials in both cities have imposed a series of property cooling measures to rein in spiralling residential prices in two of Asia’s most expensive housing markets.
As a result, home sales in both cities have plummeted and residential prices have been trending downwards amid weaker economic growth.
Despite their similar situation, LaSalle’s Chris Chow thinks that Hong Kong and Singapore are at slightly different points in the property investment cycle.
This is because Hong Kong’s property curbs have only recently started to bite, as shown by the extent of price corrections, even though the measures were implemented a few years ago.
In Hong Kong, home prices have fallen by around 13 percent since its peak in September 2015. But from its bottom in 2003 to its peak, prices rose sharply by 370 percent.
Comparatively, residential prices in Singapore declined by merely 1.2 percent since September 2015 and nine percent from its highest level in September 2013. Between 2003 and its peak, prices grew by 92 percent.
Therefore, Singapore’s inflection point “is probably closer and more advanced than Hong Kong, so we feel the market is bottoming out”, noted Chow.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
