SINGAPORE – Lower mortgage rates, population growth and recent changes to housing policies are expected to support Singapore’s residential property market in the second half of 2026, even as price growth moderates and home sales remain below 2025 levels, said PropNex.
Private home prices are expected to rise by 3 per cent to 4 per cent for the whole of 2026, while developers are projected to sell about 9,000 new private homes, excluding executive condominiums, the property agency said in its results statement for the first half of 2026 released on Aug 13.
In 2025, developers sold a total of 10,815 new private residential units here, excluding executive condominiums, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
PropNex expects between 14,000 and 15,000 private resale homes to change hands in 2026, compared with 14,622 units in 2025.
This is despite a softer first half, with fewer private homes sold than in the first half of 2025, due to a steep drop in new private home launches.
Private home prices are still increasing, albeit at a slower rate than the year before, PropNex chief executive Kelvin Fong noted.
He said the residential property market will be supported by owner-occupiers and buyers’ continued confidence in well-located projects.
PropNex also noted that Singapore citizens and permanent residents accounted for 98.3 per cent of new non-landed private home purchases in the first half of 2026.
It expects sub-sale transactions – the resale of an uncompleted property by its original buyer before the development receives its final legal completion, and a proxy for speculative activity – to remain low relative to historical levels.
“The latest trends indicate that home purchases are mainly led by locals with genuine housing needs rather than speculation,” Fong said.
In the public housing market, PropNex forecast about 26,000 to 27,000 HDB resale transactions in 2026, with prices rising by up to 1 per cent.
In comparison, a total of 26,169 HDB resale flats were transacted in Singapore in 2025.
HDB resale transactions fell 7.4 per cent year over year to 12,681 units in the first half of 2026, while resale prices dipped 0.4 per cent.
Demand for pricier and well-located flats remained resilient, however, with 491 flats selling for at least $1 million in the second quarter, up from 411 in the preceding three months.
Strong growth drivers
PropNex noted that demand will benefit from the substantial decline in mortgage rates from their 2023 peaks, with fixed two-year housing loan rates now ranging from about 1.4 per cent to 1.7 per cent a year.
Other growth drivers include Singapore’s growing population and rising household wealth.
PropNex also expects the removal of the 15-month wait-out period for certain private home owners buying HDB resale flats to improve movement between the private and public housing markets.
The cooling measure, introduced in 2022, was abolished from July 28 for private property owners buying non-subsidised Housing Board resale flats without an HDB loan.
PropNex said the change could allow older home owners, empty nesters and families whose housing needs have changed to move more easily from private homes into HDB flats.
This could release more private resale homes into the market while lifting demand for larger HDB resale flats, including five-room and executive units.
Changes to the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) remission rules may also revive interest in large collective-sale sites, PropNex said.
Under the changes, large sites – those that yield at least 700 residential units but fewer than 1,400 upon redevelopment – will have their completion and sale timelines extended to six years, from the current 5.5 years, before the ABSD remission is clawed back.
Developers pay 40 per cent ABSD upfront, but get 35 per cent back if they meet the required development and sale timelines.
Meanwhile, mega sites – those that yield at least 1,400 residential units upon redevelopment – will have a completion and sale timeline of seven years, up from the current 5.5 years.
Against this market backdrop, PropNex’s revenue edged up 0.7 per cent to $603 million in the first half, buoyed by stronger agency commissions from HDB resale, landed homes and leasing.
Net profit declined 3.1 per cent to $40.9 million, from $42.3 million a year earlier.
PropNex said it increased its share of property transactions to 64.3 per cent in the first half, from 60.6 per cent for the whole of 2025. Its market share rose across new launches, private and landed resale homes, HDB resale flats and private leasing.
Its sales force on Aug 3 stood at 14,574 agents, up from 13,945 at the start of the year.
PropNex declared an interim dividend of five cents per share, equivalent to 90.4 per cent of its first-half net profit.