The value of property sold under auction has hit a five-year high of $102.27 million, although the actual number of sales has not increased.
There have been 34 sales this year, the same as last year, but the total value increased by 41 per cent, from $72.5 million, property consultancy JLL said yesterday.
Residential has dominated the listings, with 26 homes put up for auction - 88 per cent being mortgagee sales.
The auction market has been quiet in this quarter, with total sales value plunging 76 per cent to $10.83 million from $45.65 million in the three months to Sept 30.
Only four properties have been sold this quarter, down from 12 sold in the previous three months.
Two of three residential properties sold were mortgagee sales; the fourth was an industrial property.
JLL said big-ticket items sold earlier in the year, particularly in the residential and commercial sectors, largely contributed to the rise in total sales value this year.
A single-storey bungalow with redevelopment potential at 25 Branksome Road contributed $16.30 million to the residential sector when it went under the hammer in September, making it the biggest auction deal this year.
Apart from 2013, the number of residential properties put up for auction since 2009 has consistently surpassed the combined number of industrial and commercial sites, said JLL. In 2013, residential real estate accounted for a low of 46 per cent of all listings.
The past two years have marked a significant growth in the percentage of mortgagee properties as a portion of residential auction sales, a departure from 2010 to 2013, which saw mortgagee listings making up less than 50 per cent of total residential sales.
Ms Mok Sze Sze, JLL's head of auction and sales, said: "In the environment of an impending further increase in interest rates and softening of the rental market, we are likely to see more mortgagee sales put up in 2016. The majority of these are likely to comprise residential properties."
R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng said auctions could be seen as an "opportunity hot spot to snap up properties at good bargains, amid a general, marginal price decline".
