Singapore, 15 May 2023 THE number of non-landed private homes – excluding executive condominiums – bought by foreigners or non-permanent residents (NPRs) hit a five-year high in the first quarter of 2023, just before the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates were hiked at the end of April.
Foreigners bought 259 condo units in Q1 2023, up 14.6 per cent from 226 units in Q4 2022. This was also above the five-year quarterly average volume of 249 units between Q1 2018 and Q4 2022, said a report by Orange Tee & Tie’s senior vice-president of research and analytics Christine Sun. The report drew on caveats as at May 15 and covered new, resale and sub-sale transactions.
In Q1, foreigner purchases accounted for 6.9 per cent of private home transactions, up from 3.1 per cent in the year-ago period, OrangeTee & Tie data showed.
OrangeTee & Tie noted in its report that mainland Chinese buyers could be most affected by the jump in ABSD, as they constituted the biggest number of foreign and PR buyers of private non-landed homes from 2019 to Q1 2023.
While ABSD hikes may knock down the number of Chinese buyers, OrangeTee & Tie’s Sun said more buyers from China and Indonesia may purchase condos as PRs or new citizens, given that they will then be liable for less ABSD.
Sun believes the cooling measures are unlikely to affect buyers’ perception of Singapore as one of the best places for property investment.