Singapore on Track to Break 2019 Investment Record as Deal Pipeline Swells to S$6 Billion
Singapore is set to surpass its 2019 annual peak for real estate transactions, with first-half volumes surging 269 per cent year-on-year to US$10.3 billion. A further S$6 billion of announced deals could push the city-state past the previous S$13.1 billion record, driven by lower interest rates and
Singapore is on track to set a new record for real estate transactions after trades of income-earning properties surged in the first half and the city-state added a further S$6 billion to its deal pipeline. Only Tokyo surpassed Singapore for property deals in Asia Pacific in the first half of the year, with transaction volume rising 269 per cent to US$10.3 billion compared with a year earlier, according to MSCI’s latest Asia Pacific Capital Trends report.
Investment in income-earning properties in Singapore climbed 62 per cent to US$2.2 billion in the second quarter from a year ago. A further S$6 billion of deals announced in the first half would, if completed, propel the city-state past the US$13.1 billion annual peak for transactions reached in 2019, MSCI said.
“The second quarter has firmly put to rest any doubts about the durability of Asia Pacific’s ongoing recovery,” said Benjamin Chow, head of private assets research for Asia at MSCI. “Deal activity remains resilient even across markets facing interest rate uncertainty like Japan and Australia, while most of the region, including China and Hong Kong, is clearly on the ascendancy.”
Singapore’s record first half was anchored by deals including IOI Properties Group’s S$2.5 billion purchase of Asia Square Tower 2 from CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Singapore’s biggest commercial REIT, and Brookfield’s close on a S$224.6 million purchase of seven Singapore industrial properties from ESR-REIT. Those assets are part of an eight-property portfolio that Brookfield agreed to buy from the REIT for S$338.1 million in December 2025.
The deal surge came as SORA, Singapore’s benchmark interest rate, fell as low as 1.02 per cent in April, making the city-state one of the few jurisdictions globally where investors could borrow money at well below the yields from commercial properties. While the SORA rate has since climbed to around 1.34 per cent, the city-state’s record-setting pipeline of deals could expand further, with market sources telling Mingtiandi on Friday that CapitaLand Investment and IOI Properties are closing in on a deal to acquire Singapore’s One Raffles Place for almost S$2.4 billion.
Among other recent deals, the real estate unit of Hong Kong’s Jardine Matheson in July announced a plan to buy Wheelock Place on Singapore’s Orchard Road from Wharf REIC for S$1.1 billion. Meanwhile, retail deal volume doubled to US$11.9 billion in the second quarter, causing retail to overtake industrial as the second-largest sector in the first half of 2026, MSCI said. Among the largest deals in the sector was CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s S$3.9 billion acquisition of the Paragon mall and medical complex on Orchard Road from Cuscaden Peak.
