SINGAPORE: There was a record number of mainland
Chinese home buyers in the last quarter of 2010, according to data
from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
With more drastic cooling measures implemented by
the Chinese government, analysts say more Chinese will put their
money in Singapore property.
Mainland Chinese buyers are now the second largest
group of foreigners who buy homes in Singapore, falling behind to
Malaysian buyers - who have typically dominated foreign ownership
of property here.
Chinese buyers accounted for 23 per cent of foreign buyers in the
fourth quarter of 2010, up 3 percentage points from the previous
quarter.
They have outpaced Indonesian buyers, who fell behind at 18
percent.
Overall, Chinese buyers accounted for 19 percent of all foreign
buyers in 2010.
Analysts say investing in Singapore property for the long-term is
no longer unique to Singaporeans, but have extended to the mainland
Chinese as well.
Mr Ku Swee Yong, CEO and international property advisor, said,
"there's a very large pool of chinese buyers who need to buy
properties in singapore for their own use - for schooling, for
coming into singapore to work, for immigration purposes, all these
are a natural consequence of the efforts singapore has put in to
promote ourselves in china over the last decade or so".
Some experts are concerned about the impact on the property market
if foreign buyers make a quick exit; but others say the current
level of foreign ownership is not alarming.
"Singaporean buyers still make up the majority of buyers - about 70
percent, so that's still a very high proportion. So for the
foreigners even if they were to pull out, it's not going to cause a
big drop in prices if the singapore economy is still doing well and
the locals still continue to buy", said Ms Chua Chor Hoon, head of
Southeast Asia research at DTZ.
Still the proportion of Singaporeans buying homes is also falling,
according to URA data; with Singaporean buyers falling to 72 per
cent last year, as compared to 76 per cent in 2009.
- CNA/cc