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Singapore condo builders face $19bn debt-mountain

Singapore’s listed developers and real estate investment trusts face their heaviest burden of near-term maturities on record as home prices continue to fall.

The 80 property companies on Singapore’s stock exchange reported a combined US$18.5bn of borrowings that have to be repaid within a year in their latest filings, Bloomberg-compiled data showed. The looming debt wall comes as the vacancy rate for condominiums soared to the highest since 2006, pushing prices to the lowest in almost two years, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

Savills predicts refinancing for homebuilders and REITs will be more challenging as Singapore’s economy slows, with expansion cooling to 2.4% in the second quarter, from 4.8% in the previous three months. Population growth on the island is at a 10-year low and Standard & Poor’s expects home prices have further to fall.

“We’re at that point when every quarter you’re seeing selling prices come down a little bit and secondary market transactions aren’t very active,” said Kah Ling Chan, a property analyst at S&P. “I suspect we haven’t seen the bottom yet.”

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