Citigroup Inc. (C) said it’s
“encouraging” that the city’s household debt tied to the real
estate market is only a fraction of property values, downplaying
concerns of a bubble.
Singapore’s S$203 billion ($160 billion) of mortgages
amounted to 24.2 percent of the value of residential properties
in the third quarter, according to Citigroup’s analysis of
government data. The lender, the biggest employer among foreign
banks on the island with 10,000 employees, offers housing and
car loans as well as credit cards and other banking services.
“Nobody has walked me through the mechanics of a total
crash of the real estate market for it to be compelling,”
Michael Zink, who heads Citigroup’s operations in Southeast
Asia, said in an interview in Singapore on Feb. 20. “Ninety
percent of households live in a home that they own, so where’s
the bubble?”
Singapore’s fourth-quarter home prices slid 0.9 percent,
falling for the first time in almost two years as the government
introduced more taxes and restrictions to widen a campaign that
began in 2009 to curb speculation. The central bank said last
month that new residential loans have declined and household
balance sheets are strong, following a Forbes article that said
the city is headed for an “Iceland-style meltdown.”
Photographer: Sam Kang Li/Bloomberg
A jogger runs past people with dogs in Telok Kurau district in Singapore. Concerns of a… Read More
A jogger runs past people with dogs in Telok Kurau district in Singapore. Concerns of a property bubble in Singapore came after Singapore’s home prices rose in the past five years to a record amid low interest rates. Residential values jumped 61 percent since mid-2009, when they were at their lowest in 2 1/2 years following the 2008 global financial crisis. Close
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Photographer: Sam Kang Li/Bloomberg
A jogger runs past people with dogs in Telok Kurau district in Singapore. Concerns of a property bubble in Singapore came after Singapore’s home prices rose in the past five years to a record amid low interest rates. Residential values jumped 61 percent since mid-2009, when they were at their lowest in 2 1/2 years following the 2008 global financial crisis.
Concerns of a property bubble in Singapore, ranked Asia’s
second-most expensive luxury housing market, came after home
prices rose in the past five years to a record amid low interest
rates. Residential values jumped 61 percent since mid-2009, when
they were at their lowest in 2 1/2 years following the 2008
global financial crisis.
Loan Limit
After introducing taxes on property sales, the government
added them to homebuyers and imposed mortgage limits. In June,
the central bank also said financial institutions granting
property loans need to ensure that individuals’ monthly
repayments on all debt don’t exceed 60 percent of income.
Singapore’s mortgages exceed those in Hong Kong, ranked by
Knight Frank LLP as the most expensive city to buy a luxury home
in Asia. Hong Kong’s housing loans amounted to HK$900.3 billion
($116 billion) at the end of the third quarter, according to
data from the city’s central bank.
Zink said Singapore’s housing market is unique because the
majority of citizens live in government-built homes, where many
families have already paid off their mortgages. About 82 percent
of Singaporeans live in these so-called Housing Development
Board apartments, according to the housing authority’s website.
Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Michael Zink, head of Asean countries at Citigroup Inc.
Michael Zink, head of Asean countries at Citigroup Inc. Close
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Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Michael Zink, head of Asean countries at Citigroup Inc.
“So if it goes up and down a little bit, for an asset they
can’t sell, does it really affect them much? I don’t think so,”
said Singapore-based Zink, 55, who’s lived in Asian cities
including Jakarta and Guangzhou for 17 years.
Falling Prices
Singapore’s biggest bank and developer said in the past two
weeks they expect home prices to fall this year. That drop may
also drive up the ratio between loans and the property values.
DBS Group Holdings Ltd. (DBS), also Southeast Asia’s largest
lender, said Feb. 14 there will probably be a 10 percent to 15
percent reduction in home prices in the city-state this year.
DBS’s mortgage portfolio has been stress-tested to withstand a
30 percent drop, Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said.
Lim Ming Yan, CEO of CapitaLand (CAPL) Ltd., the region’s biggest
developer, said last week the government may ease some of its
curbs if home prices fall as much as 10 percent.
Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in
the nation’s budget speech on Feb. 21 that it’s too early for
the government to start relaxing its measures, given the run-up
in prices in the past four years.
Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
A Citigroup Inc. Citibank branch stands in Singapore. Citigroup, which also offers… Read More
A Citigroup Inc. Citibank branch stands in Singapore. Citigroup, which also offers private banking services in Singapore, said the net worth of Singapore residents have risen 38 percent over four years, based on its analysis of government data. Close
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Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
A Citigroup Inc. Citibank branch stands in Singapore. Citigroup, which also offers private banking services in Singapore, said the net worth of Singapore residents have risen 38 percent over four years, based on its analysis of government data.
Hard Landing
“We are not engineering a hard landing,” he said in
Parliament. “Our cooling measures have been aimed at moderating
the market, so as to prevent property prices from getting too
far out of line with incomes.”
CapitaLand also said housing demand is expected to
“further moderate” with the curb on borrowing levels and
concerns that interest rates will rise.
The loan restriction in June “is the silver bullet the
government has been looking for,” said Nicholas Mak, executive
director and head of research at SLP International Property
Consultants in Singapore. “The potential for a bubble has been
greatly deflated.”
Mak estimated that 65,000 private homes could be completed
between 2014 and 2016. The housing authority will release
another 24,300 new apartments this year, it said in a January
statement. These homes, which cost less than those sold by
private developers, are typically offered with a 99-year lease.
Stress Tests
“There’s a reason why the government has released a lot of
new land,” Zink said. “There’s underlying demand for that
segment of housing.”
The 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis and the outbreak of
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, in 2003 are
reference points to build into stress tests, Zink said.
Property prices dropped 2 percent in 2003, falling for a
fourth year and capping the longest stretch of losses since the
city-state started compiling the data about two decades ago.
Housing values slumped 42 percent in the two years during the
regional crisis, according to the data.
Citigroup, which also offers private banking services in
Singapore, said the net worth of Singapore residents have risen
38 percent over four years, based on its analysis of government
data. The country’s households had S$874.7 billion in financial
assets at the end of the third quarter, eclipsing the S$837.9
billion they hold in real estate assets, it said.
“There are a lot of households in this country that are
financially very stable,” Zink said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Sanat Vallikappen in Singapore at
vallikappen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chitra Somayaji at
csomayaji@bloomberg.net
Citigroup Downplays Property Bubble in Singapore: Southeast Asia
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