How Much Singapore Property Do Foreigners Own — and Still Buy? (2026)

Less than the debate usually assumes. Permanent residents and foreigners together own 16.1% of Singapore's private homes — 74,672 of 464,368 units — while Singaporeans own 79.5% and companies the rest:

Two things to keep straight. First, this counts private homes only — condos, apartments and landed; the HDB flats where most Singaporeans live are overwhelmingly citizen-owned and not in this figure, so the foreign share of all housing is far smaller still. Second, URA reports PRs and foreigners together in the ownership stock, so the pure-foreigner slice is smaller than 16.1% — a large part of it is permanent residents who live here. Singaporeans, in other words, own the clear majority of even the private market.

Barely. Whatever foreigners own, they have almost stopped adding to it. In 2026Q1, of every new private home bought, foreigners took just 2.1% — 42 units — while Singaporeans bought 86.7% and PRs 11.2%:

This is the crucial distinction: ownership is a stock built up over decades; buying is the flow happening now. The 16.1% owned reflects years of past purchases, many made before the cooling measures bit. The 2.1% bought reflects today's rules — and today, foreigners are a rounding error in the new-sale market. (These are uncompleted, new-sale units; the count is small and swings quarter to quarter, but the direction has been unmistakable.)

One word: stamp duty. In April 2023, Singapore doubled the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) on foreign buyers to 60% — meaning a foreigner buying a $2 million home now pays $1.2 million in duty on top of the price. That is a deliberate wall, and it works: foreign buying fell to the low single digits, where it remains.

So the two numbers are simply two different eras:

• The 16.1% owned was accumulated over decades, much of it before the heaviest cooling measures.
• The 2.1% bought is what happens under a 60% duty — near-total deterrence of new foreign purchases.

Permanent residents, who face a lower ABSD than foreigners, still buy modestly (11.2%). The stock will only shift slowly, because owning is sticky and selling is a choice — but at the current buying rate, the foreign share of the market is drifting down, not up. ABSD rates are as of 2026 — verify the current figure on IRAS; see also our ABSD rates guide.

Almost never — and the ownership data shows it. PRs and foreigners own just 1.7% of Singapore's landed homes, versus 18.8% of non-landed (condos and apartments):

That gap is by design. Under the Residential Property Act, foreigners generally cannot buy landed homes without government approval, which is granted sparingly and typically requires significant economic contribution. The one broad exception is Sentosa Cove, where foreigners may buy landed homes under a lighter approval process.

So foreign participation is concentrated almost entirely in the non-landed market — condos and apartments — where nearly one in five units is PR- or foreigner-owned. Landed housing remains, in practice, a Singaporean market. Rules are as of 2026 — verify with the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).

It means the market is now driven almost entirely by locals — Singaporeans and, to a lesser degree, PRs. Foreign demand, once a meaningful force in the prime segment, has been priced out at the margin, and that shows up where you would expect: the prime Core Central Region, the segment foreigners historically favoured, has lagged — up just 1.7% over the past year against the mass-market suburbs' 5.2%.

Two implications follow:

• Local income and policy set the pace. With foreign buying negligible, prices track local affordability, loan rules and cooling measures far more than global capital flows.
• The prime discount is partly a foreign-demand story. Some of the relative softness in CCR prices reflects the absence of the foreign buyers who used to compete there.

Insight line: Singapore's private market is, for now, a domestic market with a foreign-owned tail. For how the segments are actually moving, see the current state of the market.

Where the figures come from. Ownership and purchaser figures are URA's private residential owner-profile and purchaser-profile statistics, by nationality, read from PropKaki's database as of 2026Q1. Ownership counts assessed private residential units (including EC) by owner type; purchases count uncompleted (new-sale) private units bought in the quarter, excluding EC.

What we have not claimed: that foreigners alone own 16.1% (URA groups PRs and foreigners together in the ownership stock — the pure-foreigner share is smaller); that the purchaser count is large or stable (it is a small quarterly flow of new-sale units that swings); or that these cover HDB or the resale market (they do not — this is private property, and purchases are new-sale only). Regulatory figures — the 60% foreigner ABSD and the landed-approval rules — are as of 2026; verify the current position on IRAS and the Singapore Land Authority. This is general information, not financial or legal advice.