Despite dire predictions of sharp drops, Singapore’s property prices don’t seem to have budged much, but statistics may mask a market already in deep decline. The official price index data appear largely benign, down just 0.7 percent in the third quarter, for a cumulative decline of less than 4 percent from the peak in 2012. But that’s the wrong price data to look at, said Alex Shlaen, a property investor and CEO of Panache Management, a luxury brand manager. While many analysts cite property price gains from 2009 when the index hit its financial crisis nadir, Shlaen believes the high-end never really recovered after hitting a pre-financial crisis peak in 2008. “2009 was a cardiac arrest. If you compare the high-end property prices of 2007 with now, the market is substantially down,” he said, estimating luxury property prices are off 30-50 percent from their peak.... Continue Reading