Analysts question changes made to property portal; URA says it’s for ‘greater market transparency’

• URA said revamp of Realis data system was to make it more user-friendly and transparent
• But analysts said the price ranges of foreign property purchases are no longer available
• Some said the portal still contains most information for analysts to understand the property market
• However, others said their ability to make accurate projections may be impacted

SINGAPORE — Some property analysts have questioned the removal of some property data following the revamp of a portal by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), but the agency said that it is part of a whole suite of changes — which include the addition of data that was not available previously — that are aimed at “greater market transparency”.

The main contention arising from the revamp of the data system, called Real Estate Information System (Realis), was over the removal of the price range of private home purchases by foreign buyers.

In response to queries from TODAY, a URA spokesperson said on Thursday (Nov 12) that the changes were to make information “more easily accessible, available and user-friendly for the public and professionals”.

“The goal is to support greater market transparency and enable users to make better-informed decisions relating to property development and transactions,” the spokesperson added.

URA, however, did not respond to questions about why data on foreign buying has been removed, except to say: “As part of our continual efforts to improve our services, we will review the usage and usability of the enhanced version.

"We will take into account users’ feedback on the enhanced version (including its data coverage) and make further enhancements where necessary to ensure the data portal remains relevant to users.”

In its response to CNA, URA said that it excluded a small number of data sets due to their “very low usage rates”.

Realis is a portal where detailed information on the transactions of private property such as prices, unit sizes and addresses are provided.

Property analysts typically use data from Realis for research on their market reports.

Some property analysts said that the removal of pricing data of foreign buyers is not significant to the extent that it will affect their ability to make projections on the market.

Dr Lee Nai Jia, deputy director of the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies at the National University of Singapore, said that the data available from the system is still largely the same.

He added that in any case, property analysts make forecasts on demand and supply through the total volume of transactions.

Mr Desmond Sim, head of research for Southeast Asia at property consultancy CBRE, clarified that not all data on foreign buying has been removed. For example, he is still able to find out the proportion of homes bought by foreigners in the core central region.

However, he would not be able to filter the data further to find out the price range, unlike before.

“I think at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s a very big issue. It’s a matter of usage… The main crux of data is still there,” he added.

However, other property analysts said that information on foreign buying is useful when they work on consultative projects.

Mr Lee Sze Teck, director of research at property agency Huttons Asia, said that one example is when developers want to find out what market segment they should target for their residential project.

“This kind of data gives us a good feel in addition to what we hear on the ground… I think for us, more data is always good, rather than less data,” he said.

Ms Tay Huey Ying, head of research and consultancy at property firm JLL, echoed the same sentiments.

“Foreigners contribute to demand for homes. Any information about what they are buying, including price range, will help us to understand better foreigners’ buying patterns. That can help us to forecast demand more accurately. In that sense, it can help all stakeholders in making an informed decision,” she said.

As to URA’s removal of the data due to its low usage, Ms Tay said that there may be a need to evaluate and dig deeper the reasons for its low usage instead of just looking at traffic statistics on the surface.

She said not all data is being looked at every day, especially in this pandemic period when the number of transactions from foreigners is low.

However, even if they tap the data once a month or once every quarter, they can still use it to draw out some patterns, she added.