Hong Kong’s home curbs may help end Singapore’s three-year slump

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Jan 19): Singapore’s three-year housing slump could see relief from an unexpected quarter in 2017: Hong Kong.

So says Cushman & Wakefield, which expects the slide in the city-state’s home prices to end this year as foreign investors turned off by Hong Kong’s move to increase the stamp duty for overseas buyers look to Singapore instead. Desmond Sim, head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia at CBRE, said Singapore house prices are approaching their trough, with a forecast price move of flat to minus 2%.

“The fallout from the stamp duty could be beneficial for Singapore,” said Sigrid Zialcita, managing director for Asia Pacific research at Cushman & Wakefield. “Singapore is always seen as a place where you can preserve capital and we are expecting interest from foreign nationals to come back.”

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