Foreign-buyer activity drops to 0.6% in August amidst launch drought

Only one caveat was lodged involving a four-bedroom River Modern unit.

Foreign-buyer purchases dropped to 0.6% in August 2026—almost a decade low—likely due to the absence of project launches during the month, according to Huttons Asia.

The property consultancy added that only one caveat was lodged during the month, involving a four-bedroom unit at River Modern acquired for $6.8m at $3,739 per square foot.

January 2023 recorded the highest foreign-buyer activity over the three-year period before gradually declining for four consecutive months to 3.0% in May.

Buying activity fluctuated throughout the three-year period, with September 2024 and February 2025 also recording 0.6%, matching August 2026 for the lowest reading in the dataset.

Year-on-year, foreign-buyer activity was 0.5 percentage points higher in August 2025 at 1.1%.

Meanwhile, September recorded the highest foreign-buyer activity in 2025 at 6.4%. The figure fell to 1.3% in October before rising to 3.1% in November, then declined to 1.5% in December.

Foreign-buyer activity stood at 2.4% in January 2026 and rose to 3.2% in February, before ranging between 1.2% and 1.8% from March to July.

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Huttons Asia

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