Singapore Real Estate Industry Evolves to Reduce Covid-19 Impacts
Corona virus has put the entire human race in disarray and all countries have reported cases. There is no doubt, that this pandemic has ripped and sabotaged the world economy to a high extent. Restriction of movement, social distancing, and lockdown have been put in place in countries across the globe. With this in mind, investors are perturbed as per how to prevent the insolvency of their assets. Real estate investors are thrown into a state of bewilderment, as the lockdown has meted direct impacts on Social gathering and events. Restaurants, schools, hotels, malls, and ware houses are isolated.
It is quite glaring that every market has been threatened by the outbreak of Covid-19, but the real estate is arguably the most affected industry. Let’s go ahead and analyse how the real estate industry has evolved during the pandemic, with Singapore as the focal point.
In Singapore, The Lockdown has affected the business of top Singapore real estate projects. Examples include Riviere, and Amber Park Showflat. Their revenues as well as customer volume were negatively affected.
The effect of COVID-19 has been quite enduring and was more experienced in the second quarter of the year than in the first quarter. There is a massive slump in the industry, as yearly investments reduced by 32 percent during the first half of the year. However, the real estate industry is evolving, as market leaders are harnessing various measures and new technological trends to keep the market afloat.
Indeed, the pandemic has instigated the worst financial breakdown in the Singaporean real-estate industry since 2008. The economy experienced a melt down between April 2020 and June 2020 when the lockdown was enforced. As a result of this, the real estate industry’s year on year returns crumbled by 39 percent.
Results of the latest data from JLL indicate that Singapore and Hong Kong are the most affected Asian countries. During the first quarter of 2020, the volume of real estate investment in Hong Kong dropped by 65%, whereas, Singapore experienced a whooping 68% drop in the second quarter of this year. This is a significant drop compared to last year’s performances.
The housing subsector was at the front line of the impact, as the sales of property in Singapore fell by 55 percent in April compared to the figures in March. Meanwhile, it is apparent that the drastic drop is as a result of overseas and internal travel restrictions.
The ravaging impact of the pandemic prevented customers from visiting estate properties that interests them.
The challenge is huge and might sweep some parochial companies into oblivion. However, estate developers in Singapore have employed various strategies in ensuring that they remain in business. Digital innovation has been the order of the day, and this has brought about virtual viewing of properties by interested investors. Due to the pandemic, these estate developers have updated their online portals, allowing investors to carry out virtual peeps into the properties on their computers and mobile devices.
Affinity at Serangoon had earlier announced the closure of her showrooms between April and first week of June, but they later opened their doors for visitors in June, while ensuring that virtual technology is put in place. Compared to other developers, Companies with virtual reality capabilities are attracting more patronages than those without.
Just like Affinity at Serangoon, Amber park and Riviere developers are obeying the preventing measures strictly. As we speak, interested investors can only be allowed entrance into the facilities after booking online. From home, would-be investors can have a clear view of the various condominiums and units before booking for a physical visit. The developers are ensuring crowd control, social distancing and controlled access to the facilities. Truly, there is a new face to the real estate economy
The world has revolved and the post-COVID-19 period will see changes in the way the real estate industry is run.
The coming of the 5G technology and Artificial intelligence will put the icing on the cake. Virtual reality will be adopted by a plethora of housing and estate developers. Of course, the virtual reality can showcase enormous information to interested investors, and can attract leads even more than videos and pictures.
There are massive uncertainties, and experts are predicting that the impacts of the Pandemic will linger for a long time. However, investors will be more optimistic during the second half of the year, and technological innovations will play a key role in facilitating productivity.