Savills Research maintains its forecast of 7% in 2025 for private residential sales, if there are no market disruptions or government interventions to cool the market. It notes that the 0.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) price increase in Q1/2025 could be a quarter of levelling off after the URA’s Private Residential Property Price Index (URA PPI) rose by a sharp 2.3% QoQ in Q4/2024. However, the rate of price increase is expected to rise in the subsequent quarters as more projects are launched at prices that are likely to set new benchmarks in their respective locations.

Alan Cheong, Executive Director, Research & Consultancy, Savills Singapore explains, “As the tariff wars add a level of uncertainty to the economic environment, homebuyers may exercise caution and adopt a wait-and-see approach before committing to their home purchases. This may bring about some slowing down to the new sales going forward.

Although new sales since April have slowed, prices are still rising. This resilience comes about from the store of wealth of the baby boomers as well as rising HDB resale prices which closed the gap for upgraders. Even though new sales in Q2/2025 may be affected somewhat by the fallout in sentiments caused by the US tariffs, we believe that the two factors that had supported demand will continue to be the driving forces keeping new sales going.”

Meanwhile, home purchases by Singapore permanent residents (PRs) continued to increase for the second consecutive quarter by 2.1% QoQ. Non-landed home sales of Singaporeans and foreigners, on the contrary, declined 2.6% and 17.6% QoQ in Q1/2025.

For Singaporeans, the drop came after four consecutive quarters of increase. For foreign purchases, the transaction volume has largely remained low and had been so since Q2/2023 when the ABSD rates were raised again. In addition, the uncertain global economic conditions may have also added to all groups of buyers treading with caution.

Due to the increase in home sales to PRs, the proportion of non-landed sales by this group of buyers grew 0.6 of a percentage point (ppt) from 13.3% in Q4/2024 to 13.9% in Q1/2025. However, this is still low compared to pre-Q2/2023 figures.

The proportion of non-landed sales by foreigners declined by a marginal 0.2 of a ppt to 1%, the lowest since the data was published by URA. Similarly, the proportion of non-landed home sales by Singaporeans also contracted by 0.3 of a ppt to 85%. While there was a slight decline in proportion, this was still deemed to be high in comparison to pre-Covid times and historical figures.

George Tan, Managing Director, Livethere Residential, Savills Singapore says, “Market activity remains cautiously optimistic, particularly in well-located and suburban areas. Supported by calibrated land supply and resilient fundamentals, the private residential market continues to reflect stable and sustainable growth, offering a well-balanced environment for buyers and investors seeking long-term value and stability.”

Click here to view image of the residential property