SINGAPORE: Sales of luxury homes in Singapore fell by 50 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter ending March.
These are mostly apartments that are worth at least S$5 million (US$3.7 million).
In the first three months of this year, 66 such homes were transacted, down from 128 in the same period last year.
Foreigners purchasing these properties dropped by 98 per cent, with just one sale to an overseas buyer.
In contrast, foreign buyers made up the bulk of such transactions over the same period in 2023, picking up 52 units, just before latest changes to the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD)
were introduced.
Since then, the number of foreign purchasers of luxury
homes have steadily declined.
DAMPENED MARKET SENTIMENT
In April last year, the ABSD for foreign buyers of residential homes was raised from 30 per cent to 60 per cent, as part of cooling measures set by the government to stabilise the market.
This means that for a S$5 million home, buyers will have to pay about S$3 million in taxes.
“Traditionally, (the luxury segment) attracts a lot of foreign buyers. But since the introduction of the new ABSD last year, we saw the number of foreign buyers drop significantly,” said Professor Sing Tien Foo, Provost’s Chair Professor at the Department of Real Estate at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Business School.
Source: cna
