SRX: S’pore condo resales plummet 57% in April during circuit breaker period

Based on the flash report by SRX Property on Tuesday (12 May), the resale of private non-landed homes in Singapore fell despite prices barely changing. This is due to the impact of the partial lockdown measures on property market since the start of the circuit breaker period in April.
In April, the number of condominiums and private apartments resold plummeted 57.3 per cent to 309 units compared to 723 units in March, as shown by the figures below by the real estate portal.

Compared to April last year, year-on-year resale last month dropped 62.2 per cent. Also, compared to the five year average volumes for the month of April, the resale figure was 66.8 per cent less.
The 309 resale home transactions in April are “encouraging” although no house viewings could be carried out throughout the circuit breaker period starting from 7 April, Head of Research and Consultancy of Orange Tee & Tie Christine Sun told the Straits Times.
Ms Sun explained, “Although some have turned to virtual house tours as an alternative, it will still take time for remote house viewings to gain traction as potential buyers may still prefer to make a final inspection of the units before they make a purchase.”
Furthermore, she pointed out that the resale volume was still not the lowest ever even if the figure was low in comparison to recent months. Due to the immediate unavailability of SRX historical data, she utilised data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Realis data as a gauge. From this, she found that January 2015 was the last lowest volume resold at 305 units.
The month-on-month decline of 57.3 per cent was not the largest decline either. Back in January 2012 and February 2013, resale volume dropped 62.2 per cent and 69.6 per cent, respectively.
According to Ms Sun, about 500 units could exchange hands once the circuit breaker measures are dismantled and house viewings can restart. On the other hand, she noted that resale could see further decline to about 250 to 300 units in May amid the circuit breaker measures.
Overall resale prices fell 0.2 per cent over March as sellers worked hard to cling to their asking prices, as shown by the chart below. The resale prices last month were just 0.7 per cent less than the previous year. This is reflected in the chart by the relatively stable price trend since April of last year until last month.

Median Transaction Over X-Value (TOX) 
The drop in SRX’s transaction over X-value (TOX) data, is nonetheless reflected in the downward pressure on prices. The extent of overpaying (positive value) or underpaying (negative value) for a property based on SRX’s computer-generated market value is captured by TOX. Only districts with more than 10 resale transactions are covered by the data.
From a negative S$2,000 in March, the SRX’s overall TOX fell to a negative S$11,000 last month, as shown in the chart below. For the whole of 2020, the overall resale prices may drop by 3 per cent to 5 per cent, Ms Sun opined.

A luxury freehold apartment at Ardmore Park was transacted at the highest price for a resale unit in April at S$27.7 million. According to a Business Times report last week, a penthouse at Ardmore Park was bought by the businessman husband of Chinese actress Vicki Zhao, Huang Youlong. The transacted price was S$27.65 million, or approximately S$3,164 per sq feet for a strata area of 8,740 sq ft.
In addition, the most expensive unit sold in the city fringes is a freehold unit at The Westside in Tanjong Rhu that was sold for S$3.8 million.
As for the most expensive unit sold in the suburbs in April, it was a unit at Hillion Residences in the Dairy Farm/Bukit Panjang area that was resold for S$2.7 million.