Although global jitters haven’t vanished, lower borrowing costs have clearly brightened the mood, with some trackers even pointing to a two-year high in quarterly shophouse sales. Still, the momentum depends on who is counting. One source logged 18 Q2 2025 transactions, down 10% from Q1’s 20 and 14.3% below Q2 2024’s 21. Another, COTD, tallied 21 deals, a 5% quarterly rise and the basis for the “two-year high” tag. The split highlights fragile confidence, yet also shows cheaper finance drawing buyers back. Notably, 999-year or freehold assets comprised about 85% of Q2 sales, underscoring investors’ preference for stable land tenure.
By value, signals are similarly mixed. Q2 2025 sales reached $127 million, up 6.6% from Q1, but 35% below $195 million a year earlier. In the first half, 38 deals worth $246.3 million made for the weakest half-year since 1H 2009, a sobering milestone. Even so, the quarter’s rise in dollars suggests pricing power is holding in select niches, helped by easing rates and a little more lender appetite. This contrasts with the luxury condominium segment where a unit at 32 Gilstead Road recently sold for a record S$14.543 million.
Prices tell the same cautious story. The mean unit price in H1 2025 inched up 0.5% to $6,431 per square foot from $6,397 in H2 2024, modest but positive. Yet District 1, the CBD, saw its median psf tumble from $11,543 last year to $6,523, a sharp reset that cooled core sentiment.
Activity rotated outward: District 8 led Q2 with seven deals worth $53.1 million, and suburban, mixed-use shophouses drew more eyes. Even amid thinner volumes, 14 assets changed hands for $5 million or more in Q2, up from nine in Q1. Notably, a $12 million shophouse in Bukit Pasoh changed hands, underscoring ongoing appetite for large deals.
Macro forces explain the push and pull. Uncertainty around US trade tariffs and Middle East conflict has curbed risk-taking and widened price gaps between buyers and sellers. Still, Singapore’s economy grew 1.4% quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2025 after a 0.5% dip in Q1, offering a timely lift. Policy may also help at the margins, as extended residential SSD holding periods nudge some capital toward commercial assets such as shophouses.
Year-to-September sales total about $325 million, with 2025 projected at $500 million to $800 million, below 2024’s $947.8 million. Call it cautious optimism, with calculators kept very close for now.
