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Singapore: New private home sales in September more than double over August

THE number of new private homes sold in September more than doubled over the tally in August, on the back of two major launches that set new price benchmarks for suburban housing. 

According to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday (Oct 17), developers in Singapore sold a total of 987 units excluding executive condominiums (ECs). This is a 125.3 per cent increase from August’s 438 units.  Including ECs, 992 units were sold in September, compared with 449 units sold in August. 

Meanwhile, 913 units were launched last month, a more than five fold increase from August’s 134 units. 

More than two thirds of the take-up of new private residential units, excluding ECs, were in the suburbs or outside central region (OCR) with 686 units sold. This was followed by the core central region and the city fringe, or the rest of the central region, with 198 units and 103 units sold respectively. 

Best-selling projects during the month included Lentor Modern and Sky Eden@Bedok, both of which are in the suburbs. GuocoLand’s Lentor Modern, being built in the Yio Chu Kang area, put 605 units on the market mid-month and sold 512 units. Frasers Property launched its 158-unit Sky Eden@Bedok early in September and sold 121 units. Both projects were launched with median pricing of above S$2,100 per square foot (psf).

With the two launches, property agency OrangeTee & Tie noted that the proportion of new non-landed homes sold above S$2,000 per square feet (psf) surged to 84.3 per cent in September, from 45.7 per cent in August. 

The number of new non-landed homes sold above S$2,000 psf in the OCR also skyrocketed to 550 units this month, from a monthly average of 35 units from January to June. 

September’s sales performance is “astounding”, said Christine Sun, senior vice president of research & analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, considering the recent interest rate hikes and growing economic uncertainties. 

“Demand remains strong due to a lack of home supply in the suburbs and HDB upgraders who sold their flats in recent months and still need a replacement home,” said Sun. 

While the strong sales showed firm demand for suburban housing even at prices above S$2,000 psf, Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore, noted that the projects that came in third to sixth in the month’s top 10 bestselling list were all in the Core Central Region (CCR). These prime properties comprised Leedon Green (31 units sold), Pullman Residences Newton (27 units sold), Perfect Ten (23 units sold) and Hyll on Holland (21 units sold) for a total of 102 units.

“Even though the 198 new sales in the CCR in September is 10 per cent less than in August, there has been some steady traction of transactional activity of prime homes since borders reopened from April 2022, bearing in mind that the median psf prices of units in the CCR are higher than those in the OCR and characteristically have a more limited pool of buyers with the financial purchasing power to acquire such homes.,” Tay added.

Two more major launches are coming up in the rest of the year and both are EC projects: City Developments Ltd’s Copen Grand in Tengah and Qingjian Realty’s Tenet in Tampines.

While the government’s latest cooling measures are expected to induce some tapering off in demand for housing, OrangeTee & Tie’s Sun analysts believes that demand for ECs will remain robust due to its limited supply. She noted also that most EC projects have been fully sold except for North Gaia, which was launched this year. 

“As prices of new suburban condominiums continue to rise, we may expect more eligible buyers to turn to the EC market as these homes are still more affordable and value for money,” said Sun. 

Source: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/new-private-home-sales-in-september-more-than-double-over-august