There's a lot to be proud of in this Little Red Dot, and the property market is no exception.
Over the past few years, Singapore has enjoyed an enormous spike in the real estate market brought on by a series of factors. One of the reasons for the growth has to be the huge amounts of development taking place across the country with new landed houses being built and condos springing up all over the island.
The other reason, and perhaps this goes hand in hand, is the huge amount of foreign investment we are currently seeing. Given the stable and seemingly safe investment opportunities, the Singapore property market seems like a dream investment.
WHY SINGAPORE?
Well, it's pretty simple actually, Singapore currently has a strong strategic position globally considering the tensions and trends taking place across the world. In the UK, there's the whole Brexit drama to wait out, in the US and China there's strong political tension so with all this considered, Singapore with it's neutral stance, low crime statistics and high standard of living, make investments safe from geopolitical and economic issues.
SO WHO IS COMING TO SINGAPORE?
One of the most high profile investor into the Singapore property market has to be James Dyson. He bought the Wallich Residence super penthouse for $73.8million as well as a Good Class Bungalow on Cluny Road for $41 million.
Another big hitter into the real estate market is Chinese billionaire Jack Ma of Alibaba who bought a 30,000 square foot piece of land to build a two-story bungalow with a pool on. There has also been unconfirmed speculation that Facebook's co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, has purchased a $230 million property on Nassim Road following his Singapore Citizenship in 2012.
THE FACTS
One of the main reasons for this flood in foreign investment, and indeed keenness within local buyers is the fact that the property market is regulated by the government. Done through the Singapore Residential Property Act, it regulates pricing and allocation as well as permits for foreign investors to ensure that they dont use it for speculative buying and selling.
In 2018, Singapore's luxury real estate prices increased by 9.1 per cent and demand so far, has been consistent, ranking highly on the Prime International Residential Index, operated by Knight Frank.
Knight Frank also claim that about 17 per cent of the world's wealthiest people would like to purchase homes in Singapore and that eight per cent of high net worth individuals in Australia would like to purchase a new home in Singapore.
Of course, with surges in demand always comes a worry about lack of supply and over inflation but Knight Frank claim this not to be a problem. One of the reasons for this is that the government dropped stamp duty in 2017 for local buyers but raised it for developers and non-Singapore residents to cool down the demand.
WILL IT CONTINUE?
Well, time will only tell but if the geopolitical climate is anything to go by, the answer is yes. Continued strife in Hong Kong, alongside uncertainty in the UK and tensions between the US and Iran continue to make Singapore an ideal place for investment.
Source: Asia One