Chart of the Day: PRs dipped to just 14.3% of home buyers in February

Here is a possible reason behind it.

According to Savills, purchases by PRs constituted 14.3% of total private non-landed home sales in February, a dip from January’s 19.8%. However, the share of 14.3% was still within two standard deviations between January 2011 and March 2013, leading us to opine that the revised ABSD did not have a significant impact on PR purchases.

A possible reason for the fall could be due to PRs returning to their homeland during the lunar new year holiday.

Here's more from Savills:

Similarly, it appears that non-PR overseas purchasers were impervious to the 5-ppt revision in the ABSD rate as their proportion has been trending up since November 2012.

This was unlike the dramatic 17.1-ppt dive between December 2011 and January 2012 when a 10% ABSD rate was imposed on non-PR overseas purchasers.

Caveats as of 5 April 2013 (comprising transactions up to 26 March) signalled a rebound in purchases by PRs whose share rose to 18.7%. Correspondingly, purchases by non-PR oveseas buyers edged up from 10.0% in February to 11.8%.