Singapore’s luxury home prices, which have been the worst hit by the government’s property curbs over the past few years, are finally showing signs of a recovery, developer Guocoland Ltd (國浩房地產) said.
High-end home sales in the city-state had been on an upswing even before the government in March eased some of its cooling measures, which were in place since 2009, Guocoland group managing director Cheng Hsing Yao (鄭馨堯) said.
However, the changes in March might have added more fuel to the buying sentiment, he said.
“The change in sentiment was not caused by the tweaking alone,” Cheng said in an interview in Singapore. “The tweaking has contributed, but sales for our projects started picking up toward the end of last year.”
Singapore-listed Guocoland is part of Malaysia’s Hong Leong Group (豐隆集團), a Kuala Lumpur-based conglomerate with interests in financial services, manufacturing, real estate and hotels. The company is helmed by Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan (郭令燦), whose fortune is worth about US$4.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Guocoland develops luxury homes and offices in Singapore, Malaysia, China and Vietnam.
The company acquired a prime Singapore land site for S$595 million (US$430 million) a year ago, paying the highest price for a purely residential site in a government auction since 2009. It is to start marketing its 450-unit Martin Modern project on the site on July 22 and expects to complete construction by 2021.
Cheng expects that the majority of the apartments will be bought by Singaporeans and Singapore-based permanent residents.
“Demand is there, with lots of people waiting on the sidelines,” Cheng said. “Prices have bottomed and we can see a slight firming up already.”
The relative value of high-end properties has become attractive, as the price gap between mass-market and luxury homes has narrowed, he said.
Singapore home prices fell in the three months ended last month, extending the drop in property values to a record 15th quarter as most measures to cool the market remain in place, despite the slight loosening in March.
Prices in prime areas declined 0.9 percent in the period, data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday showed.
In March, the government reduced stamp duty imposed on sellers, helping stoke optimism that Singapore’s property market is rebounding.
“Many countries have started to introduce their own versions of cooling measures. In terms of pricing, Singapore is quite attractive when compared to Hong Kong and some of the cities in China,” Cheng said.
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