Sales of new private homes in January up 17.6% year on year

Condominiums in the suburbs made up the bulk of the sales, with 238 units moved. This was followed by 110 home sales in the city fringes and 33 in the core central regions. PHOTO: ST FILE

Demand for new private homes appears to be on an upswing with sales surging last month.

Developers sold 381 units last month, 17.6 per cent higher than the 324 units moved in the same month last year. It was also 3.8 per cent higher than the 367 sold in December last year.

Analysts were cautiously optimistic after the figures were released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

Mr Desmond Sim, head of CBRE research for Singapore and South-east Asia, said: "We expect demand for new homes to remain steady, hovering in the region of 7,000 units for the whole of 2017. The market is closely watching interest rate movements, which might sway decision making."

Savills Singapore research head Alan Cheong said the cooling measures will "add too much resistance for transactions or prices to mount any V-shape recovery".

Condominiums in the suburbs made up the bulk of the sales, with 238 units moved. This was followed by 110 home sales in the city fringes and 33 in the core central regions.

  • NEW PRIVATE HOME SALES

  • 381 Number of units sold last month.

    3.8% Increase in sales last month compared with December last year.

The top-selling residential projects were Parc Riviera, where 38 units were shifted at a median price of $1,270 per sq ft (psf), and The Trilinq, where 25 units were transacted at a median price of $1,399 psf.

R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng noted that 184 executive condo (EC) units were sold last month, although no project was launched. He said EC sales improved last year, with an estimated 4,069 units sold compared with just 2,613 in 2015.

Mr Ong attributed the rise to developers cutting prices.

While JLL's national director of research Ong Teck Hui was optimistic about sales this year - he estimates 8,000 to 8,800 units will be moved compared with last year's 7,952 - others were more pessimistic.

Experts usually expect muted sales in January due to Chinese New Year, with launches lined up for the period after the holiday.

Clement Canopy was launched last Saturday, while Grandeur Park Residences, Park Place Residences and Seaside Residences will be launched in the coming weeks.

The URA figures exclude ECs. With these factored in, developers sold 565 units last month, 17.7 per cent higher than the 480 moved in January last year.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 16, 2017, with the headline Sales of new private homes in January up 17.6% year on year. Subscribe