Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
xpatriate housing packages have also been on the downtrend in recent years, placing some downward pressure on rental growth.
Singapore’s rental market is expected to soften in 2019 on the back of the declining number of expats coming into the city-state.
The number of non-residents in Singapore dropped by 0.1 percent to 1.64 million in June, reported Singapore Business Review.
Although HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey in October showed that the republic remained as the best country to live and work for expats for four years in a row, expatriate housing packages have been on the downtrend in recent years. This effectively placed some downward pressure on rental growth, said Savills Singapore.
Nonetheless, the softening expat demand may be offset by the growing rental demand from permanent residents and citizens, including tenants and owners from en bloc sale projects.
The revised Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rate implemented on 6 July has motivated potential buyers to adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to reacquiring properties and turn to leasing instead.
And given the low supply of newly-completed private homes as well as the drop in the number of vacant homes, the market is forecasted to become a landlord’s market.
Singapore saw only 1,088 new units added to its stock of completed homes in Q3, while island-wide vacancy rate for private homes dropped to 6.8 percent from 7.1 percent in the previous quarter.
Savills expects private condo rents to increase by one to three percent by 2019.
Ref: Property Report
