Real estate scenario in Singapore is quite encouraging. Singapore is a small country and availability of space has always been a constraint. To overcome this constraint, the city state has placed emphasis on vertical growth of buildings on its land. Most of Singaporeans nearly 80%, live in public houses, developed by the Housing Development Board (HDB).These houses are constructed on housing estates which are self sufficient in nature as they contain facilities like schools, supermarkets, clinics, food centers and recreational facilities. Some of the prominent neighborhood estates are Ang Mo Kio Town, Toa Payoh, Clementi, Yishun, Bishan, Hougang, Simei, Woodlands, Punggol, Bukit Batok and Tampine.
A residential property typically consists of three to five rooms and executive flats. A three room flat consists of two bedrooms, of about 1000 sq ft, while a four room flat has three bedrooms with about 1200 sq ft of space. A five-room flat is about 1,400 sq ft. An Executive mansionette has three rooms and they are relatively larger than any other HDB units- some even have double storey, with the rooms on the second level. The rest of the Singaporeans live in private housing, such as apartments, condominiums and landed properties.
People in Singapore earn good income by renting out their property. Even foreign nationals from countries like Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, UK and China have made significant investments in Singapore's real estate .The up market residential areas in Singapore are the area around the Marina Bay, Marina South and Sentosa Cave.
The scenario for commercial property also looks positive. Foreign Investment companies have purchased prime property for development of offices and corporate parks.A tight supply and an increasing demand for quality office space resulted in an increase in the office rentals. Real estate analysts believe, the demand or movement for commercial space is related to five critical macroeconomic factors: growth rate in gross domestic product, growth rate in industrial production output, unexpected inflation, short term interest rates and market portfolio and the conditional variances of the five macroeconomics factors are time varying. It has been observed that, a positive growth in these macroeconomic factors has resulted in an increase in demand for commercial properties in Singapore.
