The Unassuming Economist

From the IMF’s latest report on Singapore:

“The housing market has been stable during the pandemic, while the commercial real estate market has been more adversely impacted. Private house prices and transactions have held up; following a 2.2 percent increase in 2020, house prices further increased by 6.6 percent in 2021Q1 (year-on-year), while household mortgage loan NPLs remained stable at ½ percent of the bank’s mortgage book in 2020 (…). The economic downturn, however, has reduced demand for commercial space, and by end-2021Q1 prices for office and retail space had declined by 9.5 percent and 4.6 percent respectively. Vacancy rates for retail space edged up from 8.0 percent in 2020Q1 to 8.5 percent in 2021Q1, and for office space from 11.0 percent to 11.9 percent during the same period, although these have come down from peak levels in 2020.”