The Singapore property market is not overheated right now, according to Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
“Because if it's overheated, we have not done our job well,” he says at a June 30 media briefing in conjunction with the release of the central bank’s 2020/21 annual report.
According to Menon, the property market has been “remarkably resilient” in the face of Covid-19 and recession last year, as well as the continued uncertainty arising from the ongoing pandemic.
Although Singapore’s economy contracted 8.2% last year, the residential property price index rose 1.6% y-o-y in 2020, he says.
In 1Q this year, the property price index was 5.6% above its pre-pandemic levels, while nominal GDP was about 4% lower, he adds.
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Nevertheless, Menon says MAS, together with the Ministry of National Development and Urban Redevelopment Authority, will remain “highly vigilant” against the risk of a sustained increase in property prices relative to income trends.
“Our goal is to make sure that the property market does not get ahead of underlying economic fundamentals. And so, we're watching this space closely,” he says.
