More buyers snapped up new private homes last month, as developers priced their units competitively to cope with the softening market.

Developers sold 745 new units last month, up 55.2 per cent from 480 in March, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) figures released on Thursday.

This exceeded the 586 new homes being launched for sale in April, which was also a slight increase from the 724 units that were launched in March.

The top seller was MCL Land's 696-unit Lakeville in the Jurong Lake District, which moved 210 units in March at a median price of $1,318 per sq ft (psf).

CapitaLand's 509-unit Sky Habitat in Bishan Street 15 was next. A total of 130 units were moved at a median price of $1,377 psf. This was estimated to be 10 to 15 per cent lower than its initial launch prices two years ago.

Allgreen Properties' 131-unit The Sorrento in West Coast Road came up close, moving 125 units at a median price of $1,414 psf.

Units in the suburbs made up the bulk of April's sales at 65 per cent, while city-fringe units were next at 32 per cent. Non-landed private homes in the city centre made up the rest, at 3 per cent. These figures exclude executive condominiums (ECs).

Including ECs, 793 new homes were sold in April, said the URA.