According to a consumer sentiment survey released by property website PropertyGuru in the first half of this year, 55% of Singaporeans are considering delaying their home purchase until prices stabilise. Of those who are still considering entering the market, 31% are considering buying a pre-buy HDB flat, which is 15 percentage points more than the same period last year.
The number of Singaporeans surveyed who said property was expensive or too expensive in the second half of last year also increased by 15 percentage points from the first half of last year to 57 per cent.
PropertyGuru released its bi-annual Consumer Housing Confidence Index on Tuesday, which measures satisfaction with the current Singapore property market, affordability, interest rates, perceptions of policies and home selling prices.
The survey was conducted by interviewing 1,000 Singaporeans through an online questionnaire in November last year. The survey showed that while the market satisfaction and property environment indicators both increased, the affordability indicator dropped significantly by 15 points to an overall index of 43 points, down 2 points from the first half of last year's survey.
The survey shows that while both market satisfaction and real estate environment indicators have increased, the affordability indicator has dropped significantly by 15 points, with an overall index of 43 points, down 2 points from the first half of last year's survey.
Fifty-seven per cent of respondents said that housing was "expensive" or "too expensive" in the second half of last year, while 37 per cent said they "seemed" or "definitely "seem" or "definitely" unable to afford a home. These two rates are 15 and 12 percentage points higher than in the previous survey, reflecting the fact that more people do not think they can afford a home.
Fifty-five per cent of respondents are considering buying a home when housing prices have stabilised; 24 per cent are likely to abandon their plans to buy a home altogether.
Forty-eight per cent of respondents said they were already feeling the effects of the cooling measures and were therefore looking for less expensive homes.
A staggering 93% of property investors are feeling the effects of the cooling measures, a 36-point increase from the 57% in the previous survey. This is most notably due to a higher interest rate floor, meaning that fewer loans may be available.
A consumer sentiment survey released by property website PropertyGuru for the first half of this year showed that 55% of Singaporeans are considering delaying their home purchase until prices stabilise.
Dr Tan Chee Koon, PropertyGuru's regional manager for Singapore, said that the increase in buyer's stamp duty announced by the Singapore government in Budget 2023 is expected to prompt private home buyers to reconsider their home purchase plans, especially those with budgets between S$1.5 million (about RM4.995 million) and S$2 million (about RM6.66 million), who may instead consider lower priced private homes, or resale HDB flats. or buying resale HDB flats.
"These buyers will have more budget for larger four- or five-bedroom resale HDB flats if they are counted as first-time buyers under the new CPF housing allowance."
On the other hand, 25 per cent of respondents, most of whom were young and low-income earners, felt that the cooling measures had not affected their home buying budgets.
Of those who were thinking of buying a home, 31 per cent were considering applying for a pre-built HDB flat, almost double the 16 per cent in the previous survey. Of these, 47% of those aged between 22 and 29 would like to do so, while half of those on low incomes would consider doing so, mainly because they can afford to pre-purchase a HDB flat.
Notably, 29 per cent of respondents considered a resale price of S$1 million or more to be "reasonable", with a majority of those aged 30 to 39 and higher income earners.
Of those who intend to purchase or have already purchased a HDB flat, 68% chose to take out a loan from HDB, an increase of 18 percentage points from the previous survey. The majority of those who chose to do so were young people aged 22 to 29 and low-income earners, at 77% and 80% respectively.
More than half of those who had purchased a home in the survey said they intended to continue to borrow from HDB.
A third of the respondents agreed that the latest cooling measures have helped stabilise the property market, with high income earners making up the majority.
PropertyGuru noted that high income earners were more affected by measures such as the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) and the 15-month "downgrade" waiting period.
In addition, 67% of respondents expect the authorities to introduce more cooling measures this year.
