Chart of the Day: Which country dominated foreign property purchases in Q1?

Indonesian transactions surged 41.7% whilst Chinese buys plunged 40%.

This chart from Edmund Tie & Co. showed that transaction volumes made by Indonesian non-permanent residents (NPRs) in Singapore outgrew the transaction volumes of Mainland Chinese NPRs in Q1. Transactions made by Indonesian buyers surged 41.7% whilst those of Chinese buyers plunged 40%.

The decline is attributed to the Chinese New Year holidays in February. On the other hand, transactions from other nationalities also rose 31.9% in the same period.

Also read: Property buyers from Taiwan and Korea grew in Q1

Overall, there are 179 foreign property transactions in Q1. The top five main foreign buyers are mainland China (27.4% of total non-landed sales to NPRs), Indonesia (9.5%), USA (7.8%), India (3.8%); and Malaysia (1.7%).

The proportion of Singaporean property residents (SPRs) remained unchanged at around 16%, whilst NPRs decreased by 1 ppt to 5% in Q1 2019.