Singapore falls off global charts for real estate sales transactions: Survey

SINGAPORE — Real estate transactions volumes in Singapore saw big declines as of mid-2014, as it fell off from a chart of top 30 global markets in real estate sales volumes, compared to its ninth ranking in the global arena last year, according to a real estate forecast jointly published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today (Dec 5).

Reasons for the decline in transactions for the first half of 2014 include investors wanting to avoid stagnant capital values and also cooling measures for property pricing made by the Singapore Government.

There has been a reallocation of capital moving to the United States or other cities in Asia, the report cited, which was fueled by relatively unattractive pricing of Singaporean assets. Local developers also have access to low borrowing costs in Asia which they are using to fund purchases of overseas assets.

However, Singapore still stands as an appealing city for investors for 2015, according to the survey, as it ranked 9th place in investment prospects, down from 7th place in 2014. Singapore topped the list previously in 2011 and 2012.

Other notable cities for real estate investment include Tokyo, Jakarta, Osaka, Sydney, Melbourne and Shanghai. Japan saw the highest transaction volumes, up 38 per cent, in 2013 - its highest level since 2007. However, Japan reported a slight dip of 7 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year.

Overall, transaction volumes across Asia were down 24 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2014.