Foreigners buying more landed homes but fewer condos

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According to a BT news report today, foreigners including permanent residents bought 81 landed homes in Singapore in the 2nd quarter of this year, up from 69 in Q1. And the Q2 figure is the strongest quarterly showing since Q2 2007. This is according to Knight Frank’s analysis of the URA Realis caveats information up to July 30.

District 15, which includes Katong, Telok Kurau and East Coast Road, overtook District 4 – where transactions are predominantly at Sentosa Cove – as the most popular district among foreign buyers of landed property. In Q1, District 4 was most highly sought after by such foreigners.

While foreigners picked up more landed homes in Q2 than Q1, they bought fewer private apartments and condos. The number slipped 7.4%, from 2,261units in Q1 to 2,093 units in Q2.

But Singaporean bought more non-landed private homes in Q2 – 5,732 versus 5,315 in Q1.

Besides an increase in the number of landed homes bought by foreigners in Q2, their share of total landed home purchases here rose from 6.3% in January – March to almost 7% in April – June.

The latter figure is a tad below an 8% share in Q1 2007 and Q2 2008.

The 150 landed properties bought by foreigners in the first half of this year accounted for 6.6% of landed home deals in the period. On annual basis, the share has ranged from 3% in 1996 to 9% in 1995 and 1997.

PRs acquired 132 of the 150 landed homes bought by foreigners in the first half of this year. The other 18 were bought by non-PR foreigners. This is not surprising as on mainland Singapore, being a PR is one of the major criteria a foreigner has to fulfil before being allowed to buy a landed home.

Sentosa Cove is the only place in Singapore where non-PR foreigners are allowed to buy landed homes, but this is still subject to approval by the Land Dealings (Approval) Unit, among other conditions.

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