Singapore’s Commercial Property Sector Sluggish In Q3: MTI
SINGAPORE – The city-state’s overall property market expanded by 16.8 percent year-on-year in Q3 2021. However, this is much slower than the 26.3 percent growth recorded in the previous quarter, according to the latest economic data published by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Wednesday (24 November, SGT).
“Growth was primarily supported by the private residential property segment, while the performance of the commercial property segment continued to be sluggish,” said the Ministry in a prepared press release.
“In absolute terms, the value added (VA) to the sector remained 3.9 percent lower than its pre-pandemic level. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, the sector recorded a growth of 3.9 percent, a turnaround from the contraction of 3.3 percent in the second quarter.”
As for the information & communications sector, it grew by 10.4 percent on an annual basis in Q3 2021, maintaining the same pace of increase during the prior quarter.
Growth was primarily propelled by IT & information services, which benefited from the robust demand for enterprise IT solutions. On a quarter on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, the sector expanded by 6.2 per cent, exceeding the 1.0 percent growth in the second quarter.
Moreover, the finance & insurance sector expanded by 9.0 percent year-on-year compared to the 9.8 percent growth in Q2. The growth was largely supported by the expansion of the insurance sector. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the segment edged up by 0.2 percent, down from the 2.7 percent uptick in the preceding quarter.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 7.1 percent in Q3 2021 on an annual basis. While this is down from the 15.2 percent growth witnessed during the prior quarter, it’s slightly higher than the 6.5 percent expected by analysts surveyed by Reuters.
“This brought GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2021 to 7.7 percent. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, the economy expanded by 1.3 percent in the third quarter, a turnaround from the 1.4 percent contraction in the second quarter,” noted the Ministry.
Looking ahead, the government agency expects Singapore’s economy to grow by about 7 percent for the whole of 2021. This is projected to be followed by smaller gains of between 3 percent and 5 percent for the entirety of 2022.
