I strongly believe in helping my client to grow their wealth and achieve their financial goals through sound property investment strategy.
Singapore property market is hard to speculate after 9 rounds of cooling measures. It’s advisable to adopt a mid-long term approach to achieve good returns. Property,however, remains as an attractive asset for both local and foreign investors due to our stable political and economic environment.
My client’s portfolio
I have been keeping track of my client’s portfolio (as table below) on regular basis, so that I could alert them to take necessary actions based on market conditions. Key findings followed after the table...
Key findings
1. Most properties achieved average 10-20% capital appreciation after holding more than 4 years. *2nd last column.
2. Most areas appreciated around 3-4% p.a. in the past 5 yeas. It could have achieved higher growth rate, if not because of the new cooling measures in July 2018. * graph below.
3. New launch projects appreciate faster than resale properties in general. (15% vs. 5% * graph below) Resale properties are mainly for own stay buyers, who have their own lifestyle preference, investment return may not be their key consideration.
Property Market Re-cap
2015 was one of the worst period for property market, it's all doom and gloomy. Index had dropped for more than 8 quarters, and there's no signs of market turning, and very few buyers out in the market dare to commit. Yet, looking back, it turns out to be one of the best period to buy.
At the start of 2016, many people were still cautious about the market, waiting price to drop further and hoping government to remove the cooling measures. However, their dream didn’t come true.
Seller Stamp Duty and Total Debt Servicing Ratio restrictions were eased in Mar 2017, coupled with en Bloc fever, property price started to turn in the middle of 2017.
Property market saw a steep rebound from the fourth quarter of 2017 and surged by 11% within 1 year. However, the market softened from July 2018 onwards after government imposed the new property cooling measures.
Private home prices in Singapore bounced to a five-year high in 2Q 2019 after slipping for two quarters, and interestingly, sale of luxury apartments hit 11 year high, fuelled by increased demand from mainland Chinese seeking safe-haven assets. There are plenty of new launch supplies in year 2019. Over 60 projects are in the pipeline to launch.
Despite a pandemic and an economic recession, 2020 has been a surprising year for the property market. The sales took a hit during the lock-down period, however it rebounded immediately after it entered phase 2. Various measures, such as allowing borrowers to defer their loan repayments, and allowing six months extension for developers to complete their projects, have probably prevented homeowners and developers from slashing prices. The new curbs on the reissuance of OTPs did cause a slight pull-back in market, it did not change the market direction of registering positive returns of 2.2% eventually.
For the whole of 2021, prices shot up 10.6 per cent – the biggest annual increase since a 17.6 per cent surge in 2010 – and outpaced the 2.2 per cent gain in 2020, as the economy continues to recover while the luxury and rental segments enjoyed a boost from foreign demand as more Vaccinated Travel Lanes set up. The new launch prices continued to head north amid rising construction costs and land costs as well as diminishing unsold inventories. Fueled by upgrader demand, bigger units(3/4/5 bedrooms or landed houses) have appreciated by more than 15% in many popular areas, such as D15, D19, D20, etc..
Private home prices in Singapore rose by 8.4 per cent in 2022, compared with the 10.6 per cent increase in 2021. The growth momentum of home prices eased to a slower pace as a combination of fresh cooling measures implemented in September 2022, elevated interest rates. To further cool down the market, the Government has announced to ramp up the private housing land supply to 4,090 units for the first half of 2023, from 3,505 units in the second half of 2022.
Client’s portfolio Action
- Aug 2019 – Sims Urban Oasis blk2 owner had took profit and re-invested into a better location property at One Pearl Bank.
- Sep 2019 - SkyVue blk 3 owner expanded his portfolio by investing into another unit at Avenue South Residences.
- Mar 2021 - SkyVue blk 3 owner had took profit and re-invested into a freehold property in the East.
- Mar 2021 - Tanamera blk 8 owner had cash out and planning an upgrade.
- Nov 2021 - Sturdee Residence owner took profit and re-invested into One Meyer.