Outbound Property Investment By Singapore Entities Jumps 54%
SINGAPORE – Data from Real Capital Analytics shows that companies based in the city-state spent S$5.2 billion in offshore property investments during the third quarter, up 53.9 percent from the S$3.4 billion recorded during the same period a year ago, reported The Business Times on Tuesday afternoon (5 October, SGT).
The significant growth in outbound property investment deals were underscored in a report by real estate consultancy Knight Frank, which named Singapore as a “key exporter of capital”.
Notable overseas real estate investments by Singaporean entities in Q3 2021 include the S$133.9 million purchase of the One Town Center office building in Florida in the United States in July. Another is the S$43.1 million acquisition of an office complex in Barcelona, Spain last month.
Locally, S$7.5 billion worth of property investment transactions were inked during the quarter under review. Knight Frank said this is a positive development as it surpassed the S$4.8 billion recorded in Q3 2020 by 58.1. It is also 38.7 percent higher than the S$5.4 billion witnessed in Q2 2021.
In particular, investors flocked to Singapore office assets, including strata-titled ones. For instance, Silk Road Property acquired 6 office floors in Suntec City Towers for a total of S$197 million, while Rivulets Investments picked up the 61 Robinson office building for S$422 million.
“With interest running high and activity moving at an encouraging pace, continued activity is expected in the commercial and shophouse markets with more spaces being launched for sale in the coming fourth quarter,” noted Knight Frank.
Furthermore, the property consultancy thinks that despite the rising COVID-19 cases in Singapore over the past few months, the total tally for the city-state’s property investment market is expected to hit S$30 billion for the entirety of 2021 thanks to encouraging pace of investment transactions during the first 9 months of the year.
“Keeping up with the pace of activity in the investment market, we expect investment sales for Q4 of 2021 to exceed S$12.5 billion and the whole of 2021 to breach S$30 billion,” said Ian Loh, Head of capital markets at Knight Frank.
