Housing prices in the city-state are expected to rise by up to 15 percent in the next year.
Multinational bank BNP Paribas SA believes prices of residential properties in Singapore are set to recover as it has already hit rock-bottom, reported Bloomberg.
The first stage in the price rebound is expected to be driven by “very significant” income growth, said the company’s Asia Pacific research head for financial institutions and property, Wee Liat Lee.
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Given that property ownership as a percentage of household assets here is near a record low, he anticipates prices to increase by 10 percent to 15 percent in the next 12 to 15 months. In turn, this uptrend would attract foreign buyers, particularly those from China.
On the other hand, Wee thinks that home prices in Hong Kong will continue to rise after it hit record highs earlier this year.
“Hong Kong has been a crazy market; prices will never come down,” he noted.
Prices there would remain high due to a large accumulation of money that cannot be invested in overseas markets due to Beijing’s capital control measures.
“If you’re in a country where the physical amount of investable assets is really small, then the liquidity will squeeze the asset price very quickly,” said Wee.
Nevertheless, he thinks a property bubble is unlikely as most payments for properties are in cash. However, price growth could weaken if the government implements more stringent cooling measures to keep prices in check.
Meanwhile, data from BNP Paribas shows that Singapore homes have become more affordable in 2017, unlike those in Hong Kong.
In fact, the city-state’s house price-to-income ratio dropped from 12 times in the past decade to 10 times, or the lowest since 2009. Conversely, that in Hong Kong rose to 15 times from around 11 times.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
