Coronavirus’ impact on Singapore’s real estate prices

Coronavirus' possible impact on Singapore real estate prices v2

Coronavirus’ Impact on Singapore real estate prices

An article on South China Morning Post titled, “Coronavirus: Singapore property prices set to tumble, fire sales ‘unlikely’”, caught my attention this week.

These are the two sub-headers in that article:

⭐ Private home prices have already fallen, and are expected to correct up to 8 per cent this year.

⭐ But industry players and experts believe demand will only be slightly muted until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During this CB period, some clients have asked me how things will pan out in the property market:

❓ “Will I still be able to get the sale price I want?”

❓ “Should I pull the property off the market or lower my price?”

❓ “Should I sell my property to buy stocks?”

❓ “Do I buy now or wait for things to stabilise?”

❓ “People always say crisis is 危机. So where is the 机?”

❓ “Time to be greedy when others are fearful?”

❓ “Should I exercise the Option To Purchase or should I let it lapse?”

How will Singapore property prices move?

To begin with, I do not have a crystal ball 🔮

How long the pandemic is going to last and how long we have to stay at home for… are questions that I have no answer to.

And obviously the answers to these questions will play a part together with other known unknowns.

But due to the nature of my work, I do have the privilege and the opportunity to interact with and observe how people of diverse backgrounds process information, behave and act (or not act) in real estate transactions at different points of the market 🤝

I have shared my thoughts with my clients based on their unique individual situation 🗣️

Unfortunately (from the perspective of a property seller), the resale market as a whole is highly likely to soften further in the next quarter to two.

Having said that, resale buyers may want to hold back from rejoicing too early.

Just because the price index is down (or up), does not mean the price of all the properties will move in the same way.

Properties will appreciate or suffer a drop in value in different ways and at different rates.

There is no guarantee that a buyer will definitely be able to secure what would be of interest to him/her at an attractive price as a willing seller would be required in any sale transaction.

Do not be surprised if there are people out there who are doing even better during this period of time.

Which explains why I have seen dropped out units (new home sales) getting snapped up within a few hours (sometimes within an hour) on the same day – all of which were transacted remotely.

3 things to be clear about

If you are looking to transact, there are essentially 3 important things that you need to be clear about 💡💡💡

Generally speaking:

1️⃣ You need to be clear about what your situation really is:

– What is your position?

– What are your objectives?

– What will help you meet these objectives?

2️⃣ You need to be clear about the intrinsic value of the property that you are in possession of or are interested in – where does this property stand in the market?

More than half of the sellers I have met over the years have gotten the value of their properties wrong – which meant they generally took longer to sell their place.

The buyers I have met did not fare too well either.

More than half of these buyers attached the wrong kind of value & importance to the properties they were interested in – which meant they could have missed a number of good deals.

This pattern is normal & hardly surprising.

This is due to limited experience as most of us will only transact between 1 to 3 properties in our lifetime 🙂

3️⃣ Lastly, you need to be clear about what the underlying factors that will affect the long term price trend are.

📈 What is your take on where the Singapore real estate market will head in the next few quarters?

Next, I invite you to have a read about what happened to me during the 1st month of Covid-19 Circuit Breaker and how the Singapore property market performed from April 2020 to July 2020.

Photo by Guo Xin Goh on Unsplash

Jack Sheo
jack.sheo@gmail.com

Jack has been guiding real estate clients since 2010 to make sound decisions pertaining to Singapore real estate based on data, stats and trends. Well-liked by both his local and international clients for his friendly yet professional approach to helping them, he welcomes the opportunity to have a chit chat session to see how he may be of assistance.

Read more about this Singapore property agent.

Jack也能用中文交流。请看这位新加坡房产中介的中文简介



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