DBS cited mortgage lending as a bright spot in their recently released second-quarter earnings as the b Mortgage-loan applications rose 60 per cent from the first three months of 2019. This is due to the resurging housing market.
Benefitting from the city-state’s resurging housing market, Singapore’s biggest bank DBS Group Holdings cited mortgage lending as a bright spot in their recently released second-quarter earnings, reported Bloomberg.
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta revealed they have “seen the bookings come back up”, following three quarter of subdued growth, which was ushered by last July’s property cooling measures.
He noted that second-quarter mortgage-loan applications rose 60 percent from the first three months of 2019 and “since bookings are up, you’ll see the flow through to the balance sheet” in the second half.
Latest data showed that home prices in Singapore grew 1.5 percent in the three months to 30 June, which is the highest gain since Q2 2018. The hike in prices was driven by luxury purchases as well as a robust increase in foreign buying of private homes.
Nonetheless, the effect of last year’s cooling measures is still felt despite the up-tick.
Looking ahead, Gupta expects the bank’s mortgage book to grow by around $1 billion in the second half – leading to a projected growth of around $2 billion for 2019. This is down from the $4 billion forecast made at the start of 2018.
And while it is “much slower than it used to be, but it’ll still be positive”, said Gupta.
Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
