Foreigners account for ‘very small proportion’ of private housing transactions: Desmond Lee

SINGAPORE: Foreigners account for “a very small proportion” of private housing transactions, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said on Monday (Sep 12).

“In the past two years, they (foreigners) accounted for around 3 per cent of all private housing transactions,” Mr Lee wrote in an answer to a parliamentary question by Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai (PSP).

“This is lower than the pre-pandemic level of around 5 per cent between 2017 and 2019.”

Mr Leong asked Mr Lee if the inflow of foreign money into the local property market has increased in the last two years and, if so, whether such an inflow had pushed up private and public property prices.

He also asked if the Government intend to introduce new policies to manage the impact of the “flow of foreign money into the local property market”.

In his answer, Mr Lee pointed out that foreigners are not allowed to buy Housing Board flats. 

“While the foreigner share of private housing transactions remains low, the Government will continue monitoring foreign money inflows on our property market closely and adjust our policies as necessary, to promote a stable and sustainable property market,” he said.

Private home prices rose by 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, according to statistics released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in July.

This followed a 0.7 per cent increase in the first quarter of this year after the introduction of cooling measures in December 2021. Prices rose by 2.2 per cent in 2020 and 10.6 per cent in 2021.

According to an analysis in July from OrangeTee & Tie’s senior vice president of research and analytics Christine Sun, purchases by foreign buyers rose in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the preceding quarter.

Based on URA Realis data, the number of non-landed homes excluding executive condominiums bought by foreigners or non-permanent residents rose by 102.8 per cent from 144 units in the first quarter of this year to 292 units in the second quarter, Ms Sun said.

The proportion of foreign purchases climbed from 3.1 per cent to 4.9 per cent over that same period, she added. 

She said Singapore has emerged as a “top investment destination” given the geopolitical and economic uncertainties in other Asian countries.