SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Benjamin Tay, Chou Ching, Norman Ho, Vikna Rajah, Chun Kiat and Marcus Tay, Rajah & Tann Asia
1. General 1.1 Main Sources of Law
Private capital, including family offices and privately managed investment platforms, has become a more prominent feature of deal flow. This has complemented continued institutional participation by REITs, private equity sponsors and global asset managers. Transac - tion structures have increasingly favoured share and platform deals over direct asset acquisitions, driven by stamp duty efficiency, portfolio scale considera - tions and execution certainty. Investor interest has continued to broaden beyond traditional office and retail assets. Digital infrastruc - ture has remained active, with new capacity governed through a calibrated application framework focused on sustainability outcomes. The industrial and logistics sector has also shown relative resilience, underpinned by third-party logis - tics demand, e-commerce linked occupiers and sup - ply chain reconfiguration trends. At the same time, higher financing costs have sharpened underwriting discipline, with greater focus on asset quality, tenant strength, lease tenure and income durability. Despite a higher interest rate environment, Singa - pore’s monetary framework and deep banking market have continued to support transaction activity, par - ticularly for core and core plus assets. Deal execu - tion has also become more digitalised, with electronic transaction management and data-driven diligence now standard features of institutional transactions. Overall, the market has favoured scale, operational resilience and assets aligned with long-term structural demand, rather than purely cyclical plays. Headline transactions in 2025 and 2026 reflect this broader trend, including retail asset sales, Grade A office divestments, and the structuring of industrial portfolio and data centre platform investments. 1.3 Proposals for Reform A number of regulatory developments implemented or announced in 2025 and 2026 are relevant to real estate investors and developers in Singapore, particu - larly in how assets are priced, and how due diligence is carried out and managed post acquisition.
Singapore’s real estate law is primarily statute based, underpinned by a comprehensive land registration and planning framework. The Land Titles Act estab - lishes a Torrens-style registration system under which legal title and registrable interests in land are created and perfected by registration, providing a high degree of certainty and reliability for property transactions. Land use and development control are governed by the Planning Act, administered through the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s statutory Master Plan zon - ing regime. Property transactions are also influenced by the Con - veyancing and Law of Property Act, which continues to apply to conveyancing matters not displaced by the Land Titles Act, including implied covenants in trans - fers for value unless excluded by agreement. Transac - tion costs and structuring considerations are shaped by the Stamp Duties Act, which imposes stamp duty on asset and share transfers and contains targeted reliefs and anti-avoidance provisions. Foreign own - ership of certain categories of residential property is regulated under the Residential Property Act, while strata subdivision, management and collective sales are governed by the Land Titles (Strata) Act and the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act. These statutory regimes operate alongside common law and equitable principles developed by the Sin - gapore courts, which generally take a commercially sensible approach in resolving real estate disputes. 1.2 Main Market Trends and Deals Over the past 12 months, Singapore has continued to attract cross-border capital into stabilised core assets and platform-style acquisitions, supported by an efficient transaction ecosystem and widely used holding structures. International investors increasing - ly co-ordinate South-East Asia real estate strategies from Singapore, reflecting its regulatory predictability, depth of professional infrastructure and strong rule- of-law framework. This has reinforced the use of Sin - gapore incorporated holding and acquisition vehicles in cross-border portfolio and platform transactions.
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