Property Market Commentary

Is The New DBS Reverse Mortgage Loan Good For Asset-Rich, Cash-Poor Retirees?

DBS and CPF have tied up, to create the new DBS Home Equity Income Loan. This helps older Singaporeans to monetise their property assets, without having to sell. The concept behind this loan isn’t new (banks have tried selling reverse…

• 17 Aug 2021
• 6 min read
• 0
• 364

What Will Happen To The Resale Condo Market For The Rest Of 2021?

For a brief moment in May and June, resale condo volumes started to fall from record highs. It was a glimmer of hope for homebuyers who are truly looking for an own stay option. That hope was dashed when the…

• 15 Aug 2021
• 5 min read
• 0
• 646

GuocoLand Wins The Lentor Site; But Is It Worth Waiting For (At Potentially $2,000 PSF)?

The Lentor Central site, which was on the Government Land Sales (GLS) list this year, has been awarded to GuocoLand. This site is one of the highlights of the property market this year; and those looking to upgrade in a…

• 3 Aug 2021
• 5 min read
• 0
• 962

You Will No Longer Make Huge Profits: 5 Crucial Truths About The Property Market In 2021

Let’s start with a story today. A police officer sees a drunken man intently searching the ground near a street lamp and asks him what he is looking for. The drunk man replies that he is looking for his car…

• 30 Jul 2021
• 9 min read
• 0
• 1.7k

Property Market Predictions In 2021: Have Cooling Measures Been Effective? (A Savills Research Recap)

In the Savills blog, executive director Alan Cheong recently examined the correlation between Singapore’s GDP, and rising property prices. In this recap, we’ve picked out the crucial points that we feel are most useful to home buyers/investors right now; along…

• 27 Jul 2021
• 6 min read
• 0
• 687

Can Resale Condos Maintain Their Momentum For The Rest Of 2021?

First-time buyers and upgraders were hit by more bad news, for end-June 2021. It was expected that a return to Phase Two (Heightened Alert) might cool prices a bit, and buyers aiming at the resale market were hoping new launches…

• 15 Jul 2021
• 6 min read
• 0
• 427

1 Of 3 HDB Resale Flats Now Include COV – Here’s What You Need To Know

Cash Over Valuation (COV) can be a real headache for resale flat buyers, as it’s not covered by your bank loan. COV started falling sometime in 2013; and for the past few years, zero COV had become a norm. So…

• 13 Jul 2021
• 5 min read
• 0
• 1.1k

Are Home Prices Finally Cooling Again In 2021?

2021 has been a tough year for buyers; especially first-time home seekers. We’ve seen prices rise in almost every property segment, from resale flats to condos to landed homes. The end of Q2 2021, however, may give buyers a glimmer…

• 5 Jul 2021
• 6 min read
• 0
• 1.4k

5 Unpopular, Slow-Selling New Launch Condos In 2021: What’s Going Wrong?

Despite the uptick in the property market, not all condos are doing well. Sometimes it’s due to oversaturation, like in Holland V, while other times it may be issues like unpopular unit layouts. That said, not everyone looks for the…

• 1 Jul 2021
• 11 min read
• 2
• 2k

$42 Million For A Car Park: Can Car Parks Be An Investment In Singapore?

As far as property investments go, car parks are one of the most mysterious. There are few strata-titled car parks in the country today, and it’s believed the last of them were built around the 1980s. And yet, three such…

• 30 Jun 2021
• 5 min read
• 0
• 689

Holland V Condo Price War (Hyll on Holland vs Leedon Green): Should You Jump In?

The Singapore private property market is on an uptrend, to the point where even new cooling measures are being considered. Despite all that, even in this supposedly strong seller’s market, some new launches are struggling. We recently talked about a…

• 25 Jun 2021
• 8 min read
• 2
• 2k

Is 2021 A Good Time To Sell Your HDB Flat?

2021 is shaping up to be as volatile as the year before. Covid-19 is still not a forgone conclusion, there’s talk of major construction delays, and prices are rising across the board (enough to perhaps justify new cooling measures). Whether…

• 22 Jun 2021
• 6 min read
• 0
• 1.1k

How Hot Is the Singapore Property Market In 2021? Here’s My Experience From 3 Cases On The Ground

You might have seen the various headlines of how hot the Singapore property market is. The weird confluence of factors like a pandemic, construction delays, and the realisation that a bigger home is necessary in the new normal of WFH…

• 5 Jun 2021
• 5 min read
• 2
• 1.5k

How Many Foreigners Are Really Buying Properties In Singapore? (A Breakdown From The Last 10 Years)

Back in the property heyday of 2013, foreigners were often denounced as the driving force behind inflation. But today, with Additional Buyers Stamp Duty (ABSD) for foreigners at 20 per cent, foreign ownerships are at a 17-year low (as of…

• 27 May 2021
• 5 min read
• 2
• 1.6k

Parc Canberra vs Provence Residence: What Happens When Two ECs Are Side-by-side?

Even before the last units at Parc Canberra had been sold, Provence Residence launched (selling just over half its total units at launch day, to boot). Pure home buyers may think nothing of it; but the more investment-minded are likely…

• 25 May 2021
• 6 min read
• 0
• 1.2k

Will Landed Homes Continue Their Momentum In The Singapore Market For 2021?

The landed property market saw a strong pick up in Q4 2020. Back then, we heard plenty of market watchers speculate that landed prices had to come down soon; it just took time for Covid-19’s effects to bite.  Well, it…

• 23 May 2021
• 7 min read
• 0
• 674

How Much Would It Take To Pay Off Your Flat By 30, 40, 50 or 55?

For many Singaporeans – heck, for many people across the world – paying off the mortgage early is a common aspiration. We get it too: most of us don’t like the thought of owing money, especially on something as major…

• 18 May 2021
• 5 min read
• 0
• 873

4 Major Chinese Developers in Singapore: An Overview Of Their Performance So Far

Make no mistake, China is big in many ways. It has a population of 1.412 billion people, and it has the 4th largest geographical area in the world.  Comparatively, Singapore is ranked the 20th smallest country in the world (by…

• 15 May 2021
• 8 min read
• 2
• 1.6k