District 19 - Home Of Property Investors

Source : The Business Times, 13 Sept 2007

Data shows area has highest number with multiple home loans.

It may not top Singapore’s wealth charts, but Hougang has plenty of property investors - or speculators. District 19, which includes Serangoon Gardens, Hougang and Punggol, has the highest number of borrowers with multiple property loans, at 3,263.

According to data from Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS), which analysed loans and looked at where borrowers live, investors are defined as people with two home loans and more. They live all over Singapore and are not confined to the rich districts of 10 and 11 or 15.

In fact District 9, which includes Orchard, Cairnhill and River Valley, has only 716 borrowers with at least two home loans. This is much lower than districts 16, 18, 20, 22 and 23, each of which has between 2,000 and 2,700 borrowers with more than one loan.

People with multiple home loans totalled 38,520 in June - a 64 per cent jump from 12 months earlier.

And District 19 took the top prize in this category - at 3,263. CBS general manager Mark Rowley said this could be due to the number of property launches in the area, although the data would include residents who have bought elsewhere.

While the rich residents of districts 15, 9 and 10, which include Katong, Orchard, Ardmore, Bukit Timah and Holland Road, figure prominently in terms of people owing banks more than $1 million on property loans, the data shows people who owe more than a million dollars on homes live all over the island. The number jumped a hefty 26 per cent to 12,884 in June from a year ago.

‘The value of properties has gone up,’ said Mr Rowley who does not consider the jump in big loans a matter of concern, given the low rate of delinquency among borrowers.

District 10, which is made up of Ardmore, Bukit Timah, Holland Road and Tanglin, has the most million-dollar borrowers at 2,033, up 30 per cent from a year ago.

Again District 19 didn’t do too badly. It has 618 such borrowers, a slight gain of 2 per cent from June 2006.

District 24, which comprises Lim Chu Kang and Tengah, has a grand total of 6 people who owe more than $1 million on their home loans, a 100 per cent jump from 12 months ago.

Interestingly, Kranji and Woodgrove in District 25 are the only places where residents who owe more than $1 million showed a drop - 117 versus 119 a year ago. They also seem the most conservative area, with only 20 people having multiple home loans.

And District 25 had a 16 per cent fall in new property loans. This translated to 1,666 people getting a loan, down from 1,984 a year ago.

It was one of five districts that showed a negative in new property loan approvals. The other four were districts 22, 24, 27 and 20.

CBS gets its property loan data from 10 financial institutions, eight banks and two finance companies.

They are ABN Amro Bank, CitiBank, DBS Bank, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC, Standard Chartered Bank, United Overseas Bank, Hong Leong Finance and Sing Investments & Finance.