Sing Tien Foo

Sing Tien Foo

Professor of Real Estate, Head of Department of Real Estate, Business School, Director of Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies, NUS

Sing Tien Foo is Professor of Real Estate, Head of Department of Real Estate, Business School, and Director of Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) at National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also the editor of the International Real Estate Review, an affiliated journal of Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) and Global Chinese Real Estate Congress (GCREC).

He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of housing policies, urban economics and real estate finance. He is the co-author of the books Kiasunomics and Kiasunomics 2, which discusses academic research in a light-hearted way using daily life stories of typical Singaporean families.

 

Singapore skyline taken from the Supertree Observatory at Gardens by the Bay showing the Costa Rhu Condominium. (SPH)

How increased wealth affects Chinese foreign buyers' housing consumption in Singapore

In 2005, the People’s Bank of China unpegged the RMB from the US dollar, transiting it to a floating exchange rate regime based on market supply and demand with reference to a basket of currencies. The policy shift resulted in an appreciation of the RMB relative to the US dollar and Singapore dollar. With stronger purchasing power, how did Chinese foreign buyers' housing consumption patterns in Singapore change? How has that affected Singapore's property market? Academics Fan Ying and Sing Tien Foo analyse data over the last two decades for the answer.