In January, the surge of new launches and purchases by foreigners helped stimulate the country’s property market with 618 private homes moved by developers. This figure is a 14.9 per cent increase from 538 in December last year.
Compared to 2019, developer sales rose 41 per cent from 437 units, making it the highest January sales in seven years, according to the data released by Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday (17 Feb) afternoon. These figures do not include executive condominiums or ECs.
The number of foreign buyers entering the country’s prime residential districts and the private property market in the core central region (CCR) has remained stable in spite of the volatile global economy. According to the data from URA Realis, the buying of private new homes by foreigners rose 32.3 per cent month-on-month, Ismail Gafoor, the chief executive of PropNex Realty stated. The overall volume of CCR transactions spiked up 60.2 per cent on a month-on-month basis.
In January, the number of units launched increased 61.6 per cent to 598 units, compared to 370 in December last year. In prime districts or CCR, three new projects- Van Holland, Leedon Green and The Avenir- have been launched.
The ratio of sales in CCR or luxury segment increased 21.5 per cent to its highest level since January last year courtesy of high-end project launches in January. According to Christine Sun the head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie, these launches include three new ones which aggregately sold 74 units in the previous month.
Projects in the rest of central region (RCR) made up 41.9 per cent of total sales (exlucing ECs) whereas outside central region (OCR) made up 36.6 per cent, Mr Christine added.
Earlier launches exhibit resilient demand. The launches in Parc Clematis, JadeScape, Parc Botannia, Treasure At Tampines and Parc Esta were the top five best-selling new launches last month. The September 2018 launch, JadeScape along Shunfu Road became the best performer as it sold 56 total units at the median price of S$1,690 psf. The second best-selling project was Treasure At Tampines as it sold 50 total units at the median price of S$1,371 psf.
When ECs are included, 638 units were moved by developers last month, which is an increase by 15.8 per cent from December 2019 and 45.7 per cent from January 2019.
Mr Ismail noted that new home sales volume as many as 9,000-10,000 units can be expected as the government will potentially announce policies in the upcoming budget to aid affected sectors and real estate market.
