The weak figures were in stark contrast to the second quarter of 2021, when 31 units of the rare properties were sold among 86 that year, according to OrangeTee Group, which started tracking their sales in 2019. Five units were sold in the first quarter of 2024. The latest figures contrast with the rising sales trend for luxury homes costing above S$5 million ($3.87 million) in central Singapore, which have been selling well with 143 units transferred in the first quarter of this year and 100 units sold in the previous quarter.
There are currently 2,800 “good class” bungalows in land-scarce Singapore, a wealthy financial hub of 6 million people. Christine Sun, chief researcher at OrangeTee, said buyers of good class properties could be holding back on the expectation of interest rates falling further this year, or were waiting to assess the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Sun pegged the stellar 2021 sales to pandemic uncertainties that prompted Singapore’s rich to buy them to park their wealth.
“These are widely regarded as safe haven assets during macroeconomic uncertainties,” she said. Good class properties must sit on at least 1,400 sqm of land and occupy no more than 40% of a plot. They are available to Singaporean citizens and permanent residents, but foreigners can purchase them if granted permission from the government, which is rare.
A minister last year said no foreigners had been given permission to buy since 2021.
There were 44 good class bungalows sold in 2022, 21 sales in 2023 and 30 last year, according to OrangeTee.
($1 = 1.2905 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Martin Petty)
