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Is it a good time to buy property in Singapore?
Posted by Sarsky (779 days ago)
Hi,
Does anybody have any info /experience of the property market in Singapore? My partner and I want to move there soon and have seen a great place we like however we really don't know if the market has reached its peak or whether it is speculated to continue to rise.
In other words, would it be foolish to buy there now or better to wait six months. our timing is fairly flexible.
Also, how easy is it to rent out an apartment for a six month lease. The apartment we would like to buy is a 3 bed in a sought after residential area but we can't move there ourselves for some time yet.
Any opinions on this appreciated.
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Posted by Vern Lai (752 days ago)
Personally, I feel that the market has not yet reached it's full potential and theres still some room for growth. However with recent government policies, it will soften the market, especially on speculations.
Next year there will be quite a no. of new project launches that will sooth the market. Whether to buy now or later will also depends on which project / district you're looking at and the transactions going on for that area.
Just my 2 cents worth...
Posted by canadagirl (651 days ago)
I think the subprime crisis in the U.S., the resulting credit crunch and a u.s. recession will dent the property market in Singapore for a solid two-three years. After that, it will resume its upward trend and hit levels close to what we see in Hong Kong, New York and London. I would wait.
Posted by tank13 (341 days ago)
wait for another 6 months and buy around the hungry ghost festival
Posted by Ed (208 days ago)
SINGAPORE -- As property prices in Singapore continue to tumble, one of the country's biggest developers posted disappointing earnings while another said it will raise capital to protect itself against the downturn.
CapitaLand Ltd., Southeast Asia's largest developer by market capitalization, reported first-quarter net profit of 42.9 million Singapore dollars (US$28.8 million), an 83% fall from S$247.5 million a year earlier, when the company recorded divestment gains of S$141.4 million. Revenue for the period fell 23% to S$487 million from S$631.3 million.
Analysts said the severity of the earnings decline suggests the property market in Singapore and in the rest of Asia is unlikely to recover this year.
CapitaLand said revenue and earnings from its main markets -- Singapore, China, Australia and New Zealand -- all fell, although there were signs that consumer confidence is returning in China. It said buying sentiment in the Singapore property market will "continue to remain cautious in 2009."
Indeed, government figures released Friday showed prices of privately owned residential property suffered their steepest drop, 14.1% in the first quarter from the prior quarter, since such data were first compiled in 1975. This is the third consecutive quarter that prices have fallen. In the fourth quarter of last year, prices dropped 6.1%.
Export-dependent Singapore has been facing its worst recession on record, and gross domestic product is expected to contract as much as 9% this year, according to a government forecast. Many analysts have said property prices could fall 25% to 30% for the whole year.
As prices fall, developers could also be hit by a drop in property values, and some have already sought to improve their capital position.
CapitaLand closed a S$1.8 billion rights issue in March, raising its cash on hand to S$5.5 billion.
Keppel Land Ltd. said Friday it will seek to raise S$712.3 million through a rights issue of up to 653.5 million shares at S$1.09 each. The company is Singapore's third largest developer by market capitalization after City Developments Ltd.
Keppel Land's rights offer was a 42% discount to the stock's closing price Thursday of S$1.88, but its shares fell on news of the offer, finishing down 6.4% at S$1.76.
The developer last week reported a 39% drop in first-quarter net profit on lower sales. It said that although the global recession has affected housing demand across Asia, fundamentals in the region "remain positive in the longer term."
Keppel Corp., which owns a 52.64% stake in the developer, said it will subscribe to the issue in full, and will buy up to an additional 280.6 million shares that aren't subscribed for, potentially raising its stake to nearly 73%.
While analysts say raising capital eliminates a big concern for investors, a difficult operating environment means that uncertainties over developers' earnings will continue. "The big picture here is that everybody -- from developers to buyers -- is expecting things to remain very tough for a while," said CIMB analyst Donald Chua.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124078087953356969.html#mod=asia_home
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