Singapore shophouse sales rise to 21 in the third quarter as value falls

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Kooky

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More shophouses changed hands in Singapore in the third quarter of 2026 than in the second, but buyers spent less on them. A quarterly report by the agency Huttons Asia, carried by EdgeProp Singapore on 9 October 2026, counts 21 caveated shophouse transactions between July and September, up from 16 in the three months before. Their combined value came to S$157.7 million, down 18.6 per cent from S$193.7 million.

The two numbers point in opposite directions, and the reason is one unusually large sale in the earlier quarter. The report also shows what kind of shophouse investors went for, how the first nine months of the year compare with the same period of 2025, and a leasing market where activity rose while the median rent stayed exactly where it was.

Huttons Asia quarterly shophouse report, based on URA data, as reported by EdgeProp Singapore on 9 October 2026.

More deals, less money

According to EdgeProp, the Huttons report rests on caveats recorded in URA data, downloaded on 8 October 2026. On that count, 21 shophouses were sold in the third quarter against 16 in the second: five more deals, a rise of about 31 per cent.

Value went the other way. The S$157.7 million of the third quarter is S$36 million less than the S$193.7 million of the second. EdgeProp reports that the earlier quarter included a single S$70 million sale of three adjoining shophouses on Lorong Liput, which goes a long way towards explaining the gap. That one transaction was worth more than a third of everything recorded between April and June. Take it out, and the rest of the second quarter adds up to S$123.7 million, below the third-quarter total.

The table sets the two quarters side by side, with the nine-month figures the report gives for 2026 and 2025.

The busier quarter does not change the picture of the year so far. In the first nine months of 2026, 51 shophouses were sold, 25 per cent fewer than the 68 of the same months of 2025. The money involved fell faster than the number of deals: S$441.3 million against S$644.5 million, a drop of 31.5 per cent. Put together, those two figures mean the average deal has become smaller, from about S$9.48 million in the first nine months of 2025 to about S$8.65 million in the same months of 2026.

What the average deal says

Dividing each quarter's value by its number of deals gives a simple measure of what was traded. The third quarter works out at about S$7.51 million per transaction. The second quarter, lifted by the Lorong Liput sale, comes to about S$12.11 million.

The report's nine-month totals also allow the first quarter to be worked out by subtraction. Fifty-one deals in nine months, less the 21 of the third quarter and the 16 of the second, leaves 14 for January to March. S$441.3 million, less S$157.7 million and S$193.7 million, leaves S$89.9 million. That is an average of about S$6.42 million a deal. These first-quarter figures are derived here from the totals EdgeProp reports; they are not stated by Huttons.

Seen this way, the second quarter is the odd one out, and the third looks closer to the start of the year than its 18.6 per cent fall in value suggests. The number of deals has risen in each quarter of 2026, from 14 to 16 to 21, while the typical size of a deal, the spring exception aside, has stayed between S$6 million and S$8 million.

An average hides the spread, and the report gives two clues about it. More than 70 per cent of the shophouses sold in the third quarter fetched over S$5 million, which on 21 deals means at least 15 of them. And the two largest sales together account for S$33 million, about 21 per cent of the quarter's value.

Freehold and 999-year titles lead

The clearest pattern in the quarter is tenure. EdgeProp reports that 999-year leasehold and freehold shophouses made up 81 per cent of sales by number, which on 21 deals is 17, and that these were concentrated in Districts 8 and 15.

Huttons Asia reads that as a choice about holding wealth. EdgeProp quotes Lee Sze Teck, the agency's senior director of data analytics: "Investors generally preferred 999-year leasehold or freehold shophouses for wealth preservation."

Mr Lee is also reported by EdgeProp as saying that, with supply limited, shophouse valuations remain well supported over the long term. That is the view of a property agency, and it is a statement about the long run, not a forecast for the coming quarters. The figures in the same report show a market that, over nine months, has been smaller than a year earlier in both deals and dollars.

The share of long tenures also says something about what did not sell. If 17 of the 21 deals were freehold or 999-year, only four involved shophouses on shorter leases. The figures used here do not include how many such properties were on offer, so the share shows where buyers ended up, not what they turned down.

The largest deals of the quarter

The biggest sale of the third quarter was a shophouse on South Bridge Road at S$16.8 million, EdgeProp reports, followed by one on Circular Road at S$16.2 million. Both sit far below the S$70 million Lorong Liput transaction of the previous quarter, though that sale covered three adjoining buildings.

With those two set aside, the other 19 deals of the quarter share S$124.7 million, or about S$6.56 million each. That is the level at which most of the quarter's business was done, and it fits the report's finding that the bulk of sales cleared S$5 million.

Rents stand still while leasing picks up

The leasing side of the report is steadier. EdgeProp reports 800 shophouse rental contracts in the third quarter, 4.2 per cent more than the 768 of the second. The median rent did not move: S$6.47 per square foot per month in both quarters.

The exception is District 2, where the median rent rose 8.9 per cent over the quarter to about S$7.35 per square foot per month. Working back from that rise puts the district's second-quarter figure at about S$6.75. Its median now stands roughly 14 per cent above the one for all shophouses.

Sales and leases are very different in scale. For each shophouse sold in the third quarter there were about 38 rental contracts signed. A quarter's rental figures therefore rest on hundreds of agreements, while its sales figures rest on about twenty, which is why one large transaction can swing the value total by tens of millions of dollars and a median rent barely shifts.

For an owner, a flat median rent beside a higher number of contracts describes a market where tenants are being found at the going rate. For a buyer, it is the income side of the same properties whose prices the sales data records. No yield figure can be worked out from these numbers, since the sales are reported as totals and the rents per square foot.

Other investment sales in the same week

Shophouses were not the only investment property to trade in early October. On 1 October 2026, EdgeProp, in a report syndicated by Yahoo News Singapore, covered an SGX announcement by Coliwoo Holdings: it is to sell two freehold co-living properties on River Valley Road to Qing Feng Construction for S$45.5 million in total, one at S$14 million and the other at S$31.5 million, through the sale of the companies that hold them.

The deal comes with a three-year leaseback after completion, so that Coliwoo goes on running both properties under its own brand. EdgeProp reports expected net proceeds of about S$18.7 million once secured borrowings and expenses are paid. Because the sale equals 21.7 per cent of Coliwoo's market capitalisation, it counts as a major transaction under SGX rules and needs the approval of shareholders at an EGM.

The background is a wider sale. In March 2026, according to the same report, Coliwoo put seven freehold properties on the market for a combined S$218.5 million. Three of them, on River Valley Road and holding 73 keys between them, carried a combined guide price of S$78.5 million. The two now sold are part of that group of three, so the S$45.5 million cannot be compared directly with the guide. Sophia Lim, director of capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, which brokered the sale, said, as reported by EdgeProp, that it reflected continued strong interest from investors.

A much larger commercial deal was reported the next day. EdgeProp wrote on 2 October 2026 that IOI Properties Group had agreed on 1 October to acquire the company through which its chief executive, Lee Yeow Seng, holds Shenton House, for a nominal S$1. The group would settle about S$217.6 million of shareholder advances and consolidate about S$376.23 million of borrowings. EdgeProp cites a Savills valuation of S$585 million and a planned 35-storey redevelopment with a GDV of S$1.61 billion, due for completion in the fourth quarter of 2031.

The three stories differ in size and in kind, and none of the sources links them. What the Coliwoo sale and the shophouse figures have in common is the word freehold.

What comes next

Two steps are already on the calendar of the sources. The Coliwoo sale has to go to a shareholder vote at an EGM, and the three-year leaseback starts only after completion. The figures used here include no meeting date.

For shophouses, the Huttons report is quarterly, so the next one will cover October to December and close the year. The nine-month count stands at 51 deals and S$441.3 million. For 2026 to match even the first nine months of 2025, the fourth quarter would need 17 deals and S$203.2 million, more money than any quarter of this year has produced.

The third-quarter figures themselves carry a date. They were taken from caveat data downloaded on 8 October, eight days after the quarter closed, and they describe what had been recorded by that day.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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