Singapore’s overseas property investment soared 40% in 2017

Singapore’s overseas real estate investment surged by around 40 percent to a record US$28.4 billion (S$37.2 billion) in 2017, making it the fifth-biggest source of capital globally, after the US, Hong Kong, China and France, reported Business Times.

The city-state has also become the biggest Asian investor in the US rea estate market, with an investment of US$9.5 billion (S$12 billion). The figure surpassed the US$7.3 billion (S$9.6 billion) combined total investment of their Chinese and Hong Kong counterparts.

Notably, Singapore-based investors focused on industrial, suburban multi-family assets as well as niche asset classes like student housing and data centres.

David Bitner, Cushman & Wakefield’s vice-president and head of capital markets research for the Americas, noted that investors from Singapore are targeting assets that are supported by robust secular drivers, while entering markets that offer attractive relative value.

The biggest Singaporean deal last year was the US$4.4 billion (S$5.8 billion) acquisition of Monogram Residential Trust by GIC.

Singapore’s biggest outbound investor in 2017, the sovereign wealth fund started 2018 with a US$247.5 million (S$324 million) investment in US multi-family properties.

Nonetheless, Singapore investments remained concentrated within the Asia-Pacific region, with China emerging as the fourth biggest destination for Singapore outbound transactions.

Some European markets have also increasingly appealed to Singapore-based investors, with German real estate becoming the “poster child” in the post-Brexit world.

Sigrid Zialcita, Cushman & Wakefield’s managing director of research for the Asia-Pacific, revealed that Singapore-based investors are mainly long-term investors in real estate. And with the normalisation of monetary policies by central banks expected to be gradual, “conditions will remain supportive of real estate investments globally,” she said.

 

This article was edited by Keshia Faculin.