Singapore’s property market continues to attract attention as prices remain elevated and demand stays resilient despite affordability pressures.
Here are some facts to give you a quick update on how Singapore’s property market has evolved historically:
- Long-term price uptrend: Singapore’s residential property market has risen steadily over the past ~50 years
- Public housing appreciation: HDB resale prices have mirrored this long-term rise, increasing several-fold over the past two decades and producing a growing number of million-dollar resale flats in recent years.
- Active government intervention: The market has been actively managed through more than 10 rounds of cooling measures, including LTV limits, ABSD, TDSR, SSD, and controlled land supply, to curb speculation and ensure financial stability.
- Mortgage rate cycles: Mortgage rates have largely followed global interest rate cycles—spiking during crises, falling to ultra-low levels after 2008, rising again in 2022–24, and easing in 2025.
This edition on Singapore’s property market is made special with exclusive insights from industry experts. We reached out to a number of parties to gather their view on what’s ahead for the market to help home buyers have a better understanding of what they are signing up for. Below is an overview of how each and everyone of them view 2026.
Christian Oh, Director of Investments, JNA Real Estate
Headline View: 2026 is shaping up to be a year of moderation rather than momentum, with overall price growth likely to slow as affordability pressures rise. Prices are not expected to fall broadly, but buyers will find fewer obvious value pockets as market benchmarks reset higher.
Key Drivers:
- Area harmonisation: The window of lower land bids (2024–2025) is closing; recent higher land tenders will anchor a new round of price benchmarks.
- Geopolitics vs. Liquidity: Global risks are keeping buyers cautious, though this is partially offset by easier financial conditions — lower rates and strong equity gains — introducing fresh capital.
- Decentralisation: Demand continues to be redirected away from the core, with sentiment remaining weak at higher quantums.
What’s Hot vs. Not:
- Hot (Lower Land-Bid Launches): New launches emerging from the previous lower land-bid window still offer reasonable entry points.
- Not (Older Resale & CCR): Older resale projects are showing slower momentum or mild corrections, and demand for the Core Central Region (CCR) has not meaningfully picked up.
Two Signposts:
- Landed home prices: A plateau or slight correction here would confirm that affordability ceilings are binding.
- New launch pricing: If higher land costs translate into steeper benchmarks with slower absorption, it confirms a cautious market; a sharp rebound would challenge this.
Timothy Tay, Editor-in-Chief, Stacked
Headline View: Barring macroeconomic upheavals, the market in 2026 is expected to show moderation and stability with positive price growth. This will be shaped largely by a healthy supply pipeline and competitively priced projects in the suburbs.
Key Drivers:
- Suburban supply surge: More than 60% of new private residential supply will be in the Outside Central Region (OCR), a nearly twofold increase from 2025.
- Competitive pricing: Developers are likely to price projects to match owner-occupier budgets and manage competition, keeping primary market price growth stable.
- HDB supply boost: Over 13,000 resale flats will be eligible for sale (double the 2025 figure), potentially luring some buyers away from private property.
What’s Hot vs. Not:
- Hot (OCR Land Prices): Developer confidence in the suburbs is high, with average land rates having jumped 26.6% to $1,140 psf ppr in 2025, which will eventually lift new launch prices.
- Not (HDB Resale Prices): While choice is increasing, price growth in this segment was nearly flat in the last quarter, and the government has signalled intent to moderate prices further.
Two Signposts:
- HDB resale performance: Watching if price growth remains flat or moderates further given the influx of eligible resale flats.
- GLS land bids: Tracking government land bids to gauge developers’ confidence as they look toward 2027.
Clive Chng, Associate Director, Redbrick Mortgage Advisory
Headline View: The base case for 2026 is a period of “strategic stability” where the environment shifts away from high-volatility peaks toward a more predictable, downward-sloping rate path. This transition favors proactive refinancing and debt optimization as the interest rate cycle matures.
Key Drivers:
- SORA Predictability: The stabilization of SORA allows homeowners to move away from “fear-based” fixing and into packages aligned with long-term cash flow needs.
- Wealth Extraction via Equity: Sustained valuations have made equity term loans a significant source of liquidity for funding education or diversifying portfolios.
- Governing Policies: Refinancing success will depend on aligning debt structures with regulatory guardrails like TDSR and LTV limits.
What’s Hot vs. Not:
- Hot (Flexible “Open-Ended” Packages): Loan structures with penalty waivers for sales or options to switch between fixed and floating rates are advantageous in a declining rate environment.
- Not (Passive “Set and Forget” Mortgages): Remaining on 2023-era fixed rates (near 4%) is effectively overpaying and represents an avoidable drain on household wealth.
Two Signposts:
- Global Inflation Benchmarks: Persistent inflation forcing central banks to hold rates higher would shift the recommendation back toward long-term fixed-rate protection.
- Private vs. Resale Price Index Spread: A narrowing gap between new launch and resale prices would signal a healthy secondary market and a safe window to unlock equity.
Savills (Residential Leasing)
Based on Savills Singapore Residential Leasing Briefing, Q3 2025
Headline View: Savills’ research suggests that the leasing market will likely flatten or moderate further in 2026. While things look fine on the surface now, the “road ahead is clouded” by global business uncertainty and multinationals looking to cut operational costs.
Key Drivers:
- Corporate Cost-Cutting: MNCs are tightening belts. Allowances are shrinking, and companies are wary of expansion, which directly impacts the rental budget of expatriates.
- The “Newness” Factor: Tenants are preferring newly completed condos (like Normanton Park) over older stock, paying a premium for modern facilities even as the broader market softens.
What’s Hot vs. Not:
- Hot (1 & 2-Bedroom Units in RCR/OCR): Demand is shifting to smaller, budget-friendly units in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR) as singles and young couples seek cost-effective housing.
- Not (Landed Homes): Leasing volume for landed properties dropped 7.6% year-on-year, driven by a shrinking pool of senior expatriates with generous housing packages.
Two Signposts:
- Employment Pass (EP) Numbers: The EP population fell to 201,200 by June 2025. A continued decline in 2026 would signal weaker demand for high-end rentals.
- Vacancy Rates: Vacancy stood at 6.9% in Q3 2025. Watch if this creeps up as new completions (like Lentor Modern) hit the market and supply outpaces corporate demand.
Key Themes Emerging Across Expert Perspectives
With these insights, we would like to draw some similarities in their responses…
Periods of strong demand, often amplified by population growth and immigration, repeatedly collide with the city-state’s fixed land constraints, keeping housing a scarce and valuable asset over the long run. While short-term sentiment can turn hot or cautious, the underlying narrative has remained consistent: prices tend to rise over time, but rarely in a straight line, and are continuously shaped by policy, financing conditions, and shifting buyer preferences.
Across history and into the current cycle, one clear similarity is the market’s tendency to move from exuberance to moderation. Whether in private housing or public HDB resale flats, long-term appreciation has been resilient, even as growth slows when affordability limits are reached. The present environment reflects this same dynamic. Demand remains intact, but buyers are becoming more selective, price-sensitive, and location-conscious, signalling a transition from momentum-driven growth to a more measured phase.
Another enduring feature is the government’s central role in smoothing market cycles. Active intervention—through supply management, financing rules, and demand-side restrictions—has consistently prevented excessive speculation and systemic risk. Today’s conditions are no different: policy acts as a stabiliser, ensuring that periods of strong buying interest do not spiral into unsustainable excess, while also cushioning downturns from becoming disorderly corrections.
Finally, a recurring theme—both historically and in the current outlook—is decentralisation. When prices in prime or central locations stretch affordability, demand naturally migrates outward, whether toward suburban private homes, resale alternatives, or more affordable unit types. This spatial rebalancing has appeared in multiple cycles and is once again shaping expectations for the years ahead.
Taken together, the overarching view is one of continuity rather than rupture. Singapore’s property market has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to absorb shocks, recalibrate expectations, and return to a path of stability.
Collectively, the expert perspectives highlight pockets where conditions may be more supportive — such as projects from earlier land-bid cycles or greater financing flexibility — while reinforcing the importance of selectivity over broad market exposure.
Of course, there are many more considerations in order to buy a home. Overall, 2026 appears less about chasing momentum and more about navigating a market shaped by affordability, policy, and measured decision-making.
Disclosure: This is not sponsored content. Views expressed are those of the individual contributors and do not represent their institutions. Nothing here constitutes financial advice.
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