Singapore home sales drop to five-month low on tariff fears
By Gabrielle Ng
(Bloomberg) – Singapore's new private home sales fell to a five-month low in May, as global tariff tensions weighed on demand in the trade-dependent city-state.
Developer sales dropped for a third consecutive month, with just 311 units bought last month, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday.
The outlook for the Southeast Asian financial hub has dimmed, following Donald Trump's push for tariffs and the city-state's economy contracting in the first quarter. Developers have grown more cautious, launching no major projects for sale in May – a pause that further weighed on sales figures.
A first-quarter survey of senior real estate executives found that nearly 90% viewed a global economic slowdown as a risk. Their next biggest concerns were job losses and a weakening domestic economy.
Singapore faces heightened risks of a recession due to export hits brought on by tariffs, Bloomberg Economics analyst Tamara Henderson said in a report earlier this month.
Authorities have adopted a more cautious approach, offering land that could yield 4,725 private housing units in the second half of the year – a 6% drop from the first half. Instead, they expanded the so-called reserve list, where land parcels are only triggered for tender if there's sufficient demand from developers.
The market's sluggish performance is expected to persist into June, typically a slow month due to school holidays. One project in the city's east sold fewer than 10% of its 107 freehold units during its launch weekend earlier this month.
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