Daily Briefing: Singapore homes seriously unaffordable; Singapore’s bad loans to hit crisis levels

And the commercial sector a hot target for investors.

Singapore’s market cooling measures have been effective in reducing the prices of HDB flats and private homes over the past few years, but housing costs here are still seen as too high, revealed findings published by a global report last month. According to the 12th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, Singapore has a seriously unaffordable rating of 5.0, no change from last years survey. Read more here.

Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP, Southeast Asia’s largest law firm, reckons the region’s rising bond defaults will inflict as much pain on creditors as the financial crises of 2008 and 1998. As distress spreads from shipping to mining and retail to construction industries, the law firm said in an interview that recovery rates will be similar to those seen in the global credit meltdown and Asian financial crisis. Find out more here.

Investment volumes in the Singapore property market soared to S$5.96 billion in Q4 2015, up 39.3 percent from Q4 2014, showed a Colliers International report. This brought the full-year figure to S$20.32 billion, down by only 3.8 percent from 2014s S$21.12 billion. Read more here.