Chart of the Day: Foreign buyers bought fewer homes in Q1

Potential buyers were not able to visit Singapore to view the properties.

This chart from OrangeTee & Tie shows that the proportion of non-landed homes bought by foreign buyers slipped marginally from 22.6% in Q4 2019 to 21.8% in Q1. The number of non-landed homes bought by these buyers also dropped from 976 units to 811 units over the same period.

Fewer homes were bought by foreigners last month as stricter border controls were implemented across many countries and potential buyers were not able to visit Singapore to view the properties.

However, the report noted that buying interest remained steady amongst the top five foreign buyer groups. Last quarter, Mainland Chinese and Malaysian buyers were the top foreign buyers in Singapore.

Mainland Chinese, Malaysians, and Indian buyers bought a higher proportion of lower-priced non-landed homes, with the bulk of purchases below $1.5m in Q1. Conversely, the majority of buyers from the US, the UK, Australia, France and Hong Kong bought pricier homes that were above $1.5m.