Older buyers, HDB resales to fuel 2025 private home demand: Savills

Sales drop to lowest quarter in over four years on fewer launches.

The growth of private home prices will likely fall between 3%-5% for the whole year of 2025, according to estimates by Savills Singapore.

Demand will likely rely on HDB resale prices and older buyers, the real estate agency said in an August 2025 report.

“The weight of money from the baby boomer generation and higher HDB resale prices will buttress demand going forward,” said Alan Cheong, executive director, Savills Research.

Cooling measures and fewer new launches will weigh on sales volumes.

New private residential launches dropped 51.6% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to just 1,520 units, as many projects were delayed due to the announcement of the US tariffs and the June school holidays, Savills Singapore noted.

As a result, primary sales fell 64.1% to 1,212 units between Q2 and Q1 2025, the lowest quarterly tally in over four years. 
All buyer groups purchased fewer homes in Q2, with Singaporean buyers seeing a 37% QoQ drop, the lowest since Q2 2024 and the steepest drop amongst all residency groups.

Non-landed home sales of foreigners and permanent residents fell 23.2% and 13.9% in Q2 from Q1 levels, respectively.

In contrast, secondary private home sales edged up 0.8% QoQ, supported by narrowing price gaps between new and resale homes, higher HDB resale prices, and easing mortgage rates. However, year-on-year (YoY) volumes dipped 6.5%, the first annual fall after six quarters of growth.

“The fall in new launches, uncertainties in the global economic conditions and high ABSD rates for foreigners may have deterred foreigners and PRs from buying. For foreigners,” Savills said, adding that their private home purchases have largely remained low since the introduction of a 60% ABSD rate.