Foreigners Face Tougher Rules When Buying Landed Homes

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) revealed that the number of permanent residents granted approval to buy landed homes on mainland Singapore has dropped sharply since 2011,  following the tightening of eligibility criteria.

Since then married PR couples with children who are also PRs made up two-thirds of approved applicants. SLA  also added that Singaporean-PR couples' applications are generally regarded favourably to keep them rooted to the country.

Market watchers believe that rules were further tightened in the second half of last year to extend the holding period of the property from three years to five years. Furthermore, PRs were barred from acquiring landed homes in the Good Class Bungalows (GCB) area.

According to SLA in 2010 the number of approvals was 145; in 2011 it fell to 117, and finally only  31 last year. In the first half of this year, only six applications were approved. However these figures exclude the landed homes in Sentosa Cove.

Landed homes in Singapore fall under the purview of the Restricted Residential Property Act, and foreigners acquiring these houses have to obtain prior approval from the Minister for Law. The application process usually takes about 6 weeks.

But from August 2004, the Government announced a relaxation of these rules for landed homes on  Sentosa Cove, in order to attract affluent foreigners. Specifically the approval time can be as quick as two days. In addition, landed homes on Sentosa Cove is exempted from a couple of the rules governing foreigner ownership in the mainland.

At A Glance

1. Landed Homes on Mainland Singapore

• Only Permanent Resident (PR) foreigners are allowed to buy 
• Maximum land area of 1,393.5 sq m (15,000 sq ft)
• Excludes Good Class Bungalows (GCB) area (permitted previously)
• Minimum occupation period of five years (up from three years previously)
• For owner occupation only (i.e. No renting out)
• Allowed to buy only one landed home at any one time whether on the mainland or Sentosa Cove

2. Landed Homes on Sentosa Cove

• Foreigners and PRs are allowed to buy
• No minimum occupation period
• For owner occupation only (i.e. No renting out)
• Allowed to buy only one landed home at any one time whether on the mainland or Sentosa Cove

Based on caveats lodged with Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the proportion of PRs and foreigners buying landed homes has indeed fallen since 2011. In 2012, they made up 1.6% and 1.05%, respectively, of total buyers, down from 3.35% and 1.95% in the preceding year.

In absolute terms, the number of  PRs and foreigners buying landed homes has been steadily declining as well in tandem with the fall in the total number of landed home purchases. The anomaly is in 2011 when the proportion of foreign buyers more than doubled to 65 (1.95%) from 27 (0.62%) in the previous year.

Table 1: Purchase of Landed Homes (includes Sentosa Cove) by PRs and Foreigners