Singapore auction success rate to reach just under 6% in 2024

It’s at the lower end of the original projections at the start of the year.

According to the Ministry of Law, there were 3,227 bankruptcy applications made in the first eight months of 2024, 23.3% higher than the 2,617 applications made between January and August 2023, as the number of bankruptcy applications remained elevated. 

However, Knight Frank said in a report that business cessation figures fell 3.3% to 14,975 entities in Q3 2024 from the 15,487 business closures in Q2 2024. On a yearly basis, the number of business closures between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024 rose by 12.3%, slower than the 20.6% y-o-y increase in Q2 2024. 

Here’s more from Knight Frank:

Although the number of business closures appears to be abating, industrial and commercial listings will continue to make the auction listings in the remaining months of 2024 and into 2025. 

Hopefully, the reduction of interest rates and with Singapore’s economy growing by 4.1% in Q3 2024 based on advanced estimates, a turn in fortunes is around the corner where investors and owners can offload underperforming assets and reinvest the freed up capital in new opportunities in the year ahead. 

Despite the fall in Q3 2024, mortgagee listings might increase in the next few quarters before diminishing numbers became a trend, with the count of distressed properties getting worse before getting better. This can favour buyers and investors on the lookout for opportunities at more affordable levels especially in a time when interest rates are coming down. 

With more activity expected in the real estate market in the remaining months of 2024, Knight Frank envisages a success rate for the whole year to come in at just under 6%, at the lower end of the 5% to 7% range originally projected at the start of the year.