Uh, oh: Only 1 in 10 Singapore homebuyers intend to purchase a property in next 1-2 years

It's now the buyers' ballgame.

It looks like the trump card is now with Singaporean homebuyers as bad luck continues to grip home developers. According to CIMB, out of the respondents that resided in Singapore, only 14% intended to buy a property within the next one to two years.

This was not a surprise, as buying activities have been weak since the start of the year. What was worth noting was that the main deterrent was not expensive prices, but rather, buyers‟ expectations and government policies. 

Here's more from CIMB:

The biggest deterrent to buying a property now appeared to be the expectation of falling property prices. In terms of time frame, an overwhelming 78% only expected to buy a property after three years. We believe that buyers are holding back their purchases as they wait for property prices to fall. 

That could leave us with a less-than-ideal situation of weak demand on top of rising supply with historically high physical completions over the next three years. However, developers are also aware of these phenomenon and are obviously worried. 

What is interesting is that most buyers in Singapore also expect home prices to fall only „a little‟ and that is reflected in the signs of demand whenever developers re-launch projects at lowered prices. We examine more of this trend in subsequent sections.