iProperty Survey Reveals Nearly Two Thirds of Singaporeans in the Market to Purchase Property in the Next 12 Months

Many looking at overseas investment opportunities

SINGAPORE, Sept. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite rising house prices and concerns about affordability, a survey has revealed that 62% of Singaporeans still intend to purchase property in the next six to twelve months. This is one of the key findings of the iProperty.com Asia Property Market Sentiment Report (H2) 2012 released by the iProperty Group, owner of Asia's No.1 network of property portals, today.

"While housing affordability remains a major concern for consumers in Singapore, with many adopting a wait-and-see approach, the majority of Singaporeans are still actively looking to purchase property in the short to mid-term," says Sean Tan, General Manager, iProperty.com Singapore. "This suggests that despite the economic situation in Europe and the US, which has slowed demand from some of Singapore's key trading partners, the sentiment among consumers in the Singapore real estate market remains positive."

Survey findings also revealed that 38% of respondents in Singapore were considering investing overseas with Malaysia and Australia being the two favoured destinations. The Singapore figure was noticeably higher than for consumers in Hong Kong (15%), Indonesia (32%), and Malaysia (19%).

"It's not surprising that people are looking outside of Singapore for investment opportunities. Singapore's currency is one of the strongest in the region and house prices are among the highest. For many, this makes overseas investment a more attractive proposition than investing locally," added Tan.

Other findings in the report showed that 86% of people surveyed in Singapore cited affordability and rising house prices as their biggest concern about the local property market. Respondents also felt strongly about ensuring the affordability of HDB flats. 80% came out in favour of the Singapore Government's continued involvement in maintaining the price of resale HDB flats at affordable levels. Additionally, 63% feel that the Government should step up its efforts in monitoring the number of shoebox apartments in a residential development.

Summary of key findings:

-- 62% of Singapore survey respondents indicated that they were in the market to purchase a property in the next six to twelve months.

-- 38% of the survey respondents showed a keen interest in investing in overseas property, significantly higher than all the other countries surveyed

-- 86% of people surveyed in Singapore cited affordability and rising house prices as their biggest concern about the Singapore property market.

-- 80% of respondents felt strongly that the Singapore Government should continue to be involved in maintaining the prices of resale HDB flats at an affordable level.

-- 63% of those surveyed feel that the Singapore government should step up in its efforts to monitor the number of shoebox apartments in a residential development.

The iProperty.com Asia Property Market Sentiment Survey 2012 was carried out in July 2012 and attracted over 25,000 respondents. The iProperty Group leveraged on its market leading websites in Malaysia (iproperty.com.my), Hong Kong (GoHome.com.hk), Indonesia (Rumah123.com and rumahdanproperti.com) and Singapore (iproperty.com.sg) to gauge the opinions of consumers on the property market. The majority of the survey respondents were between 26 and 50 years old and mainly held executive/managerial and professional level positions with an annual income above the national average. 2,983 respondents from Singapore took part.

Asian Overview

The survey findings revealed interesting and valuable insights on how consumers from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore viewed the property market. Key regional highlights include:

-- Respondents in Malaysia and Indonesia preferred landed property, while respondents in Hong Kong and Singapore opted for private condominiums/serviced apartments as their property of interest.

-- Affordability and rising house prices continue to remain the biggest concerns for survey respondents in all four markets.

-- Majority of the respondents in each country had occupied their current premises for less than five years. The survey reveals that many respondents aspire to upgrade their current living conditions once every five years on average.

-- Location was the highest rated factor for respondents in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Respondents in Hong Kong, however, rated price to be most important factor in determining the purchase of property.

Similar to previous survey findings, location and price were still the two key factors that survey respondents viewed as important, ahead of political/economic climate, when deciding to purchase a property.

"In Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, location trumped price whereas respondents in Hong Kong viewed price to be the key factor," says Shaun Di Gregorio, CEO of the iProperty Group. "In the property industry, location and price are the most important factors that any property buyer and investor should look into before embarking on what is said to be their biggest investment."

About iProperty.com Singapore (www.iProperty.com.sg)

iProperty.com Singapore, part of the iProperty Group Limited, is the country's number 1 property website with more than 600,000 property listings in Singapore and the rest of Asia, and over 700,000 monthly unique visitors. Working with more than 14,000 real estate agents, iProperty.com.sg hosts the most comprehensive online database of properties for sale and rent in Singapore and powers the real estate channels and property content of xinMSN, ThinkProperty.com.sg, Sg-House.com, iLuxuryAsia.com, PropertyZone.sg, CNTV.cn, Mitula.com, CommercialAsia.com and StreetSine.com. Every month, the website helps tens of thousands of Singaporeans, expatriates and foreigners find their dream homes or investment properties.

For media enquiries and interviews, please contact:

Donna Garcia / Kavita Balakrishnan

Rice Communications

Tel.: +65 6221 8729

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Email: donna.garcia@ricecomms.com

Email: kavita.balakrishnan@ricecomms.com

SOURCE　iProperty.com