Singapore Home Price Growth Slows, Rents Decline as Market Cools
Singapore home prices grew at a slower pace last quarter and rents fell, as the city-state’s property boom began to lose steam.
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Singapore home prices grew at a slower pace last quarter and rents fell, as the city-state’s property boom began to lose steam.
Hong Kong home prices rose for the first time in almost a year in March as the city’s removal of property curbs revived sales.
Greater China’s property market crisis and the challenges it poses for lenders will be on full display on Monday, when embattled developer China Vanke Co. and the region’s biggest banks report earnings.
China’s overseas investment is heading for an eight-year high as its dominant firms build more factories abroad, a shift that could soften criticism of Beijing’s export drive.
The Related Cos. founder is following the money flowing south by bringing his influence to everything from real estate to schools and health care.
Jan 11, 2017
The Canadian Press
,Toronto is poised to lead the country in high-end home sales for the third consecutive year in 2017, according to Sotheby's International Realty Canada.
The realtor released a report Wednesday that looked at sales of homes for more than $1 million in Toronto and three other cities -- Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver.
It concluded that 19,692 such properties were sold last year in the Greater Toronto Area -- an increase of 77 per cent compared to 2015. Sales of luxury homes -- those worth more than $4 million -- in the GTA rose 95 per cent year-over-year to 290 homes.
Among those changes is a one-per-cent tax on vacant homes implemented by the City of Vancouver and the B.C. government's 15 per cent tax on foreigners buying homes in Metro Vancouver.
Those changes amplified a cooling in the Vancouver real estate market that started over the summer, according to Sotheby's.
Sales in Vancouver's $1 million-plus market were down 34 per cent year-over-year in the second half of the year compared to the same period in 2015.
But on an annual basis, sales of Vancouver homes worth $1 million or more were relatively flat last year, down one per cent year-over-year to 4,515 units.
Sales of homes priced at over $4 million were up 36 per cent year-over-year in Vancouver.
Sotheby's predicts that the Vancouver market for $1-million-plus homes will remain stable in the first quarter of 2017
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In Montreal, high-end home sales increased 23 per cent year-over-year to 613 properties, thanks to a stable provincial economy and political landscape, according to Sotheby's.
Calgary's $1-million-plus market also saw a boost last year. After declining 40 per cent year-over-year in 2015 due to the oil price shock, sales of homes worth $1 million or more were up 19 per cent to 612 units in 2016.
But the realtor says it's expecting a buyers' market in Calgary in the first quarter of the year as the city's economic challenges drag on.
Brad Henderson, president and CEO of Sotheby's International Realty Canada, said there are a confluence of factors responsible for the red-hot growth in Toronto's top-tier real estate market.
Among them are low interest rates, strong employment and consumer confidence and a limited supply of properties for sale, particularly in the single-family home segment.
"With natural boundaries like the lake and the greenbelt, the Greater Toronto region has less developable land than other markets, and as a consequence there are less opportunities to add to the supply," Henderson said.
Sotheby's says global turmoil -- including Britain's vote to exit the European Union and Donald Trump's election win in the U.S. -- injected uncertainty into global real estate markets last year.
Canada, which is regarded as a safe haven, has a low dollar and a strong real estate market, making it a desirable destination for real estate investment and immigration, according to the report.