The overall market sentiment has shown signs of improvement in developers’ sentiment, although still pessimistic, according to 2Q2016 Real Estate Sentiment Index (RESI). The composite sentiment index stood at 4.2 in 2Q2016, up from 3.8 in 1Q2016, which has lifted the weak sentiments in the last 11 consecutive quarters. The current sentiment index increased to 4.3 in 2Q2016 from 3.9 in 1Q2016 while the future sentiment index increased to 4.0 in 2Q2016 from 3.6 in 1Q2016.

Some 64.7% of the developers expected the number of new launches to hold at the same level in the next six months in 2Q2016. More than half of them anticipated a moderate decrease in residential property prices in the second half of the year.

About 94.7% of the respondents surveyed in 2Q16 expect the global economy to slow down and 70.2% of them identify job losses and declines in domestic economy as two potential risk factors in the next six months.

With Singapore’s 2016 economic growth adjusted further downwards and no respite yet from the government on the cooling measures, 56.1% of the respondents view that the downward economic growth forecast would have moderate impact on unsold units and prices in 2017.

RESI is jointly developed by the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS) and the Department of Real Estate (DRE) of National University of Singapore. The quarterly structured questionnaire survey is conducted among senior executives of REDAS member firms.