Investment sales in Singapore have propelled to its strongest start since 1994, within the first 3 months in 2018 – with a total value of $10.84 billion worth of deals wrapped up in 1Q2018 alone after a whirl of land-banking activities.
Investors have bagged around 26 residential sites in the first 3 quarters with a total value of $7.27 billion. Out of these, $5.83 billion came from the en bloc sales from 17 property development, while another $1.24 billion was contributed by 4 other sites acquired via the government land sales (GLS) programme.
A couple of collective sales investments made the headlines in the 1st quarter, such as the Pacific Mansion en bloc – acquired by a tripartite between GuocoLand, Intrepid Investments and also Hong Realty for a whopping $980 million, and Park West condominium en bloc – acquired by SingHaiYi group for $840.89 million.
Market watchers have noted that the total worth of private residential sites acquired via collective sale investments in the first 3 months of 2018 ($5.83 billion) is already equivalent to more than 70% of such transactions concluded in the whole of 2017 ($8.19 billion).
It’s also noted that the amount is also around half of 2007, which was the historical peak.
Property consultants mentioned that it is likely that property developers are still in the midst of restocking their land bank, given the positive outlook and the imminent price recovery in Singapore’s residential property market.