SINGAPORE — The Government is watching developments in the property market “very closely,” Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin said on Tuesday (February 28), while underlining the need for cooling measures to prevent prices from overheating.

“We are tracking the property market very closely. Where we are today from 2013, the private property market declined, but has stabilised. In fact, over the last year, demand has started to slightly increase. The HDB resale market is also stabilising. So the demand is also relatively healthy,” Mr Tan said at ERA Realty’s Asia Pacific Property Agent Business Conference.

“In the commercial market, office and retail space continue to decline… affected by the sluggish economy and low consumer sentiment… We are tracking that. We are comfortable where it is today. When we will begin to adjust, we will announce,” he added.

Against the backdrop of rapid changes globally and Singapore’s economic transformation, this year’s Budget as well as those in the next several years are very important in supporting the goals of the Committee of the Future Economy (CFE), he said.

For the whole of 2016, private housing prices fell 3.1 per cent, slowing from the 3.7 per cent decline in 2015. From the recent peak in 2013, prices have fallen 11.3 per cent, in part due to the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) framework implemented in June that year. Prices in the resale market for Housing and Development Board flats were stable last year, falling just 0.1 per cent from the previous year. From the peak in 2013, resale prices have fallen 9.9 per cent, data from the HDB showed.

ERA Realty, Singapore’s largest real estate agency, is taking a sanguine view of the property market.

Mr Eugene Lim, Key Executive Officer at ERA Realty, said: “The market is resilient and we are dealing with real demand. No one is buying to speculate. Buyers are taking a longer-term view that the market will eventually rebound and are confident that there is upside potential in the medium to the longer term. The market has stabilised in prices and the increase in transaction volume last year is expected to carry forward into 2017.”

Pointing to the decline in private housing prices, Mr Ong Kah Seng, director at property firm R’ST Research, said: “This placed private residential properties at more reasonable, attractive levels for buyers waiting for very long on the sidelines over the past three years, after TDSR was implemented... More buyers find that with this ‘at least 10 per cent of price cut over three odd years’, they can get sufficient property loans now.”

Foreign buyers are also making a comeback in the local property market. Hong Kong buyers have been active in the first two months of this year as mainland China continues to get tougher on capital control measures, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

“Individuals from neighbouring countries are looking in Singapore as a place to invest in properties. We are very optimistic with Singapore’s market,” said Mr Patrick Walujo, CEO and Managing Partner of North Star in a dialogue session at the ERA event.

Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app