Yahoo Finance [ERA IWD 2024] Wong Shanting: ERA’s research maven shifting housing trends
Wong Shanting: With ERA being a market leader in the residential sector, we can provide the narrative behind the data and market trends (Photo: Albert Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
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Wong Shanting has come full circle: She started her career as a real estate agent in ERA Singapore. More than a decade later, in August 2023, she re-joined the real estate agency in a completely different role: vice president of research and market intelligence.
Before that, Wong earned her stripes as a research analyst with property consultancies such as Knight Frank Singapore, where she was assistant manager in the consultancy and research department, and at JLL Singapore, where she was manager of Asia Pacific corporate solutions research.
“In the past, it was a top-down approach to market research,” says Wong. “[Today,] with the transparency of the Singapore property market and the Internet, consumers can easily access information and data from the URA, HDB and JTC Corp websites.”
With consumers becoming savvier and able to analyse data independently, what do professional research analysts bring to the table?
Wong believes research analysts offer perspective amid the information overload and help interpret the data for consumers.
The narrative behind the data
“We study the market data and trends before we come up with various hypotheses,” she says. “We then test them on the agents on the ground as they are a good sounding board.”
On top of URA Realis caveats and HDB resale data, Wong and her team of three research analysts have access to real-time transaction data from ERA agents. It provides them with more timely information.
“With ERA being a market leader in the residential sector, we can provide the narrative behind the data and market trends,” says Wong. “People regard their home as an asset and a means to grow their wealth. Hence, we need to up the ante on our research.”
In-depth research and on-the-ground experience
A decade ago, when Wong joined HSR as a research analyst in 2014, there were hardly any research teams in property agencies. “At that time, it was the domain of the real estate consulting firms,” she says.
Today, all the top five agencies have their own research team. Wong reckons it is because agencies have a more prominent voice today, particularly in the residential market.
Changing demographics play a part, too: With more investment-savvy home buyers and salespersons today, there is greater demand for in-depth research.
For instance, Wong and her team noticed that HDB resale prices rose faster in mature estates despite fewer transactions. “When we asked the agents who specialise in the HDB resale market why this was so, they said it’s because there’s hardly any stock on the market, so whenever a unit becomes available for sale, several groups bid for it and therefore drive up the price,” she relates. “I wouldn’t have known that by just looking at the data.”
Hence, Wong appreciates the value of such insights from agents specialising in the different market segments.
Co-living sector
When studying ERA’s in-house database of home buyers, Wong found that the median age declined from 45 years in 2015 to 39 years in 2023. She attributes it to two main reasons: Higher HDB resale prices fuelling upgrading to private homes and rising income levels. According to the Department of Statistics, the median monthly household income was $8,666 in 2015. Last year, the figure was $10,869.
“With higher household income, people are more confident about their earning potential and more willing to buy a home,” Wong reckons. “With the government’s repeated cautions that HDB is not for speculation, more young home buyers prefer to jump straight into private housing.”
Wong is also monitoring the co-living sector, a developing trend in Singapore. “Many young Singaporeans crave independence,” says Wong. “Moving into co-living spaces is the first step before buying their own home.”
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