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Coronavirus: Singapore property prices set to tumble, fire sales ‘unlikely’
- Private home prices have already fallen, and are expected to correct up to 8 per cent this year
- But industry players and experts believe demand will only be slightly muted until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic
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Singapore ’s residential property prices, which have weathered multiple cooling measures and an economic slowdown, are set to tumble as a result of the fast-spreading Covid-19 pandemic.
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Prices are expected to correct by as much as 8 per cent this year, because of weak demand and a poor economic outlook, according to property analysts.
But investors looking for fire sales will be disappointed, as analysts say prices are unlikely to crash the way they did in the recession after the global financial crisis in 2009, provided unemployment remains stable.
In the first quarter of this year, the island nation’s private home prices fell 1.2 per cent from the previous quarter, according to April 1 flash estimates by the Urban Redevelopment Authority – the first reversal after three consecutive quarters of increase.
The numbers are likely to get worse. Desmond Sim, CBRE’s head of research for Southeast Asia, is forecasting that the residential property price index will fall between 5 per cent and 8 per cent this year.
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