Recession no match for Singapore Buyers, new home sales hit 11-month high
SINGAPORE – Throwing Singapore’s worst economic crisis and the Hungry Ghost month, new residence sales in Singapore continued to climb for a fourth straight month, reaching the greatest since September 2019.
Designers in August offered 1,256 exclusive residences, up 16.3 percent from 1,080 devices in July, according to numbers launched by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Tuesday (Sept 15).
Year on year, sales increased 11.8 percent from 1,123 devices in August 2019.
The figures leave out executive condominium (EC) systems, which are a public-private real estate crossbreed.
A lot more new systems were introduced – especially those from Forett at Bukit Timah, ahead of the Hungry Ghost Event, which started on Aug 19. There were 1,582 private houses released in August, up 82 percent from 869 units in July, and nearly 56 percent greater than 1,015 systems a year ago.
Instead of reducing throughout the generally quiet Hungry Ghost month, brand-new house sales grew faster than expected after the circuit breaker period ended on June 1. The two-month lockdown had upended sales and prepared launches in April and also May with show-flat closures.
Consisting of EC units, 1,307 new residences were occupied last month, up 14.4 percent from July, as well as about 12 percent greater than 1,168 a year ago, the URA information revealed.
New sales were driven mainly by Forett at Bukit Timah, Treasure at Tampines, Parc Clematis, The Yard Residences, The Woodleigh Residences, Jadescape, and also Whistler Grand.
Ms. Christine Sunlight, head of research as well as working as a consultant at OrangeTee & Connection, noted that last month’s sales were the very best August efficiency in eight years.
Case in point: 325 brand-new houses were marketed in August 2008 in the middle of the global economic dilemma. After fresh rounds of cooling actions were executed, 756 systems were offered in August 2013 and also 617 units in August 2018.
The increasing economic unpredictabilities and also unstable equity markets “seemed to be sustaining the boom for residential or commercial properties as even more buyers look for shelter in safe-haven possessions” amid record low-interest rates, Ms. Sunlight stated.
Mr. Ong Teck Hui, elderly director of study & consultancy at JLL pointed out bright areas in the economy where some companies are secure and even growing.
These include technology, biomedical, healthcare, electronics as well as accuracy engineering. “Those in even more stable employment would have greater confidence in acquiring a home regardless of the economic downturn,” he stated.
The 0.3 percent increase in the URA exclusive household price index in the 2nd quarter might sustain the perception that prices at worst, may soften just a little. Therefore, some homebuyers may feel it isn’t worthwhile awaiting a major cost modification, he included.
Ms. Tricia Track, Colliers International’s head of research study for Singapore, stated August’s sales likewise revealed buyers’ strong passion for attractively-priced freehold city fringe jobs.
In August, the city edge projects represented the mass of sales at 49.5 percent, compared to 38.8 percent in July. The residential areas, or Outdoors Main Region (OCR) – the proxy for the mass market segment – composed 40.3 percent of overall sales last month, compared to 50.7 percent in July.
Colliers International estimated that 81 percent of the total developer sales in August were valued at the mean price of $1,000-$2,000 PSF, compared to 83 percent in July, and Amber Park along with Affinity at Serangoon is also gaining success in this period of time.
