‘S’PORE LUXURY HOUSE PRICES RECOVERING’
Easing of cooling measures in March added fuel to buying sentiment, says Guocoland
SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE’S luxury house prices, which have been the worst hit by the government’s property curbs in recent years, are showing signs of a recovery, according to developer Guocoland Ltd.
High-end house sales in the city-state had been on an upswing even before the government in March eased some of its cooling measures in place since 2009, said Cheng Hsing Yao, group managing director at Guocoland.
The changes might have added more fuel to the buying sentiment, he said.
“The change in sentiment wasn’t caused by the tweaking alone,” said Cheng.
“The tweaking has contributed but sales for our projects started picking up towards end of last year.”
Singapore-listed Guocoland is part of the Hong Leong Group, a Kuala Lumpur-based conglomerate with interests in financial services, manufacturing, real estate and hotels.
The company is helmed by billionaire Quek Leng Chan, whose fortune is worth US$4.7 billion (RM20 billion), according to the Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Guocoland develops luxury houses and offices in Singapore, Malaysia, China and Vietnam.
Guocoland acquired a prime site, here, for S$595 million (RM1.8 billion) a year ago, paying the highest price for a purely residential site in a government auction since 2009.
It will start marketing its 450unit Martin Modern project on this site on July 22 and expects to complete construction by 2021.
Cheng expects that the majority of the apartments will be bought by Singaporeans and permanent residents.
“Demand is there, with lots of people waiting on the sidelines,” said Cheng. Bloomberg