SUBSCRIBERS

Foreigners, PRs’ share of homebuyers up despite cooling measures

Foreigners’ share of home sales stood at 23% for the year up to early June; non-PR purchases fell after sharply higher ABSD rates kicked in in April while PR buying fell in numbers but rose in percentage terms

Ry-Anne Lim

Published Fri, Jun 23, 2023 · 05:50 AM

Residential

PERMANENT residents (PRs) and foreigners now make up a larger share of Singapore’s private home buyers than they did in 2020, and multiple rounds of cooling measures have yet to change that.

An analysis of caveat data by property consultancy CBRE for The Business Times showed that the proportion of non-landed private homes purchased by non-citizens is 23 per cent for the year up to early June, up from the 19 per cent in 2020.

Most of these purchases were made by PRs – they bought 17 per cent of private homes this year, up from 15 per cent in 2020. The proportion has been rising steadily since 2018.