Chart of the Day: Locals take the bulk of private home purchases in May

This amounts to 84% of the private home sales in May.

This chart from PropNex research shows that the bulk of purchases, or 84% of the private home sales in May, were made by Singaporeans. This is a 2 percentage point (ppt) MoM increase from 82% in April. Meanwhile, foreign purchases declined by 2 ppt MoM to 16% over the same period.

The number of homes purchased by foreign buyers started to drop in February and stayed depressed, largely due to travel bans that prevented foreigners from viewing and buying properties in Singapore.

Singaporeans picked up the slack, accounting for a larger proportion of sales in February with 83% as foreign buying dropped to 17%. The impact of the travel bans would be felt more keenly in the luxury homes and CCR segments, which tend to see higher foreign interest.

Property purchases by locals have been fairly consistent since February, and PropNex expects this could rise in the months ahead, especially with the travel restrictions still in place. However, foreign buying should gradually tick up again once international travel resumes.

PropNex notes that Singapore remains an attractive investment destination with positive long-term outlook for its property market.