http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...-year-20150310

S'poreans bought fewer private homes last year

Housing Board rules for PRs also saw their share of private sales increase

Published on Mar 10, 2015 1:51 AM

By Rennie Whang


SINGAPOREANS bought a smaller share of private homes last year while permanent residents (PRs) increased their impact due to a Housing Board rule change.

The August 2013 rule stipulated that newly-minted PRs must wait three years before they can buy a resale HDB flat.

"Hence, many affected couples ended up purchasing private homes to circumvent the waiting period," said Dr Lee Nai Jia, DTZ associate director of research.

Singaporeans comprised 71 per cent of private home buyers across the primary and secondary markets last year, down from 75 per cent in 2013 and 77 per cent in 2012, according to consultancy DTZ.

While their market share was high, Singaporeans bought only 8,707 private homes last year, down 48 per cent from the 16,789 deals in 2013. They bought 27,385 private homes in 2012.

PRs accounted for 18 per cent of private home buyers last year, up from 15 per cent in 2013 and 16 per cent in 2012.

It was the highest yearly proportion of purchases by the segment since data was first collected in 1995.

This may be linked to the HDB policy, which could have shifted some demand to the private housing market.

The proportion of private home purchases by Singapore PRs began to increase from the third quarter of 2013, said Dr Lee.

Even the implementation of the Additional Buyers' Stamp Duty on the first private home purchase by Singapore PRs from January 2013 did not alter the proportion of sales to PRs, which stayed steady at 17 per cent to 19 per cent across the four quarters of last year.

Sales to PRs fell less drastically last year, dropping 36 per cent to 2,191. It was 3,430 in 2013 and 5,532 in 2012.

The proportion of purchases by foreign buyers remained relatively unchanged year on year, recording a 9 per cent share in both 2013 and last year, said Dr Lee. Foreigners bought 1,109 private homes last year and 1,961 in 2013, a 43 per cent decline.

Non-Singaporeans - including PRs and foreigners - bought 776 units in the fourth quarter, similar to the 787 units bought in the previous quarter.

About 78 per cent of the non-Singaporean purchases came from four groups - Chinese nationals at 30 per cent, Malaysians at 28 per cent, Indonesians at 12 per cent and Indians at 9 per cent.

But only private home purchases by Chinese nationals rose quarter on quarter, hitting 229 units in the final three months of last year, up from 214 in the previous quarter.

Purchases by the other three groups fell.

Dr Lee noted that Malaysians were the most active of the four in the primary market in the fourth quarter, recording 131 sales.

The bulk of these could have been from the launch of Marina One Residences, a joint development between the Malaysian and Singapore governments. Chinese buyers were close behind with 125 units.

Other nationalities were active as well in the fourth quarter.

US citizens bought 30 units in the quarter and 119 for the full year, while Britons bought 19 in the quarter and 58 in the year.

Buyers from other South-east Asian countries, excluding Malaysia and Indonesia, bought 37 units in the quarter and 127 units in the year.

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