Here's why property developers are worse off today compared to 2008

Three issues are plaguing the market.

Singapore’s property developers are worse off today compared to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, a report by CIMB revealed.

Analyst Lock Mun Yee said that market fundamentals are more challenging at present, with the sector buffeted by three intense headwinds.

These include property cooling measures, a residential supply glut, and slimmer development margins due to higher land costs.

“After the implementation of a series of macro-prudential measures by the government including higher transaction costs and more prudent debt servicing measures, demand for residential property has weakened. This, coupled with a slow rental market and rising incoming supply has led to higher vacancies and deteriorating private home prices,” she said.

Lock said that a tighter land market and aggressive bidding by foreign developers mean that land prices continue to stay elevated, leading to slimmer development margins.

“With revenue growth decelerating and the bottomline being affected by narrower margins, developers are increasingly looking to overseas markets such as Australia, the UK, China and other SEA countries to bolster their activities. The bright spot is that developers’ balance sheets are healthy with low leverage, enabling them to seek reinvestment opportunities,” she noted.

The people you want to reach are already in this room.

Every quarter, SBR lands on the desks of the founders, CFOs, and directors running Asia's most consequential companies. Every day, they open our newsletter and read our website. It's a room that took twenty years to build — and it's the one most of our partners are trying to get into.

The good news is that the door is open. We work with companies on thought leadership articles, sponsored content, industry summits across Southeast Asia, regional awards programmes, podcasts, and media placements in print and digital. The shape of the right partnership depends on what you're trying to do, which is why we'd rather start with a conversation than send a rate card.

If you have something this room should know about, tell us. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help, and how.

No rate cards until we understand the brief. It's a better use of everyone's time.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia