January private home sales dropped 18 percent on year

The data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that the January private home sales by developers fell by 17.8 per cent from a year earlier. URA figures showed developers sold 433 units last month, compared with 527 units in the same month a year earlier.

The January private home sales level fell from 602 units sold in December.

January private home salesCommenting on the January private home sales, JLL said January is generally a slow month for the private residential market as it is just after the December holiday period and before the Lunar New Year festivities which is usually in February.

JLL noted that developers sold 433 private homes in the first month of 2019, 28.1 per cent less than in December 2018 and 17.8 per cent lower y-o-y. 498 new private homes were launched in January, nearly five times more than the 101 units placed on the market in December 2018 and about twice that launched in January last year.

Three new projects were launched in January 2019

Project Total (units) Launched (units) Sold (units) Median price (psf)
Fourth Avenue Residences 476 168 74 $2,412
RV Altitude 140 63 19 $2,858
Fyve Derbishire 71 36 11 $2,382

Top selling projects in January 2019

Project Sold (units) Median price (psf)
Fourth Avenue Residences 74 $2,412
Affinity at Serangoon 54 $1,496
Parc Esta 32 $1,745
Stirling Residences 22 $1,761
Parc Botannia 21 $1,384

https://www.icompareloan.com/resources/singapore-private-home-prices/

Mr Ong Teck Hui, Senior Director of Research & Consultancy at JLL, commenting on the January private home sales said:

“In terms of developer sales, January is usually a slow month for most years as it falls between the year-end holidays in December and the Lunar New Year festivities in February. A detailed analysis of the primary market activity in January 2019 indicates a stable market in spite of the effects of the July 2018 cooling measures.

“The 433 new private homes sold during that month is fair performance when compared to the 324 to 527 units sold in January each year between 2015 and 2018. Three new projects were launched in January 2019 which is healthy compared to between one and three new launches recorded in the months of January from 2015 to 2018.

“The fact that three prime district projects were launched in January reflects confidence on the part of their developers in launching units in the upper price segment where the pool of buyers is more limited. The stable market in January could be a prelude to healthy launches and sales in the coming months.

“Strong sales were achieved at Affinity at Serangoon in January following the announcement of the first phase of the Cross Island Line as the project would be within a short walk to the future Serangoon North MRT station.

“This shows that in spite of the challenging market due to the cooling measures, projects having strong attributes, such as proximity to an MRT station, can still attract buyers, provided pricing is realistic. For example, Parc Esta which is near Eunos MRT station sold 32 units in January while Stirling Residences, which is in the vicinity of Queenstown MRT station found buyers for 22 units.”

https://www.icompareloan.com/resources/parc-esta/

Mr Desmond Sim, CBRE’s Head of Research for Singapore & Southeast Asia commenting on the January private home sales said:

“In January 2019, a total of 498 units were launched, while 433 units were sold. This signalled a very different mood from January last year, when sentiments were more positive and resulted in a take-up (527 units) that is almost double that of units launched (253 units).

“There were three new launches (Fourth Avenue Residences, Fyve Derbyshire and RV Altitude) which were all from the Core Central Region. The top performer was Fourth Avenue Residences which had a decent take-up rate of 44% (74 units sold out of 164 units launched). The other two projects had 30% take-up rates with half of available units launched. Notably, based on caveats lodged, Fourth Avenue Residences sold 71.6% of units for below S$2 million. These are units with a relatively small median area of 710.4 sq ft, priced at a median price per sq ft of S$2,412.

“Existing projects continued to sell well with Affinity at Serangoon moving 54 units and Parc Esta 32 units.

“In the EC segment, just one unit was sold from Northwave, with the next highly anticipated EC project at Sumang Walk likely to launch by Q2 2019.

“With slower growth and heightened risks looming both on the global and home fronts, sentiments are likely to remain tepid and cautious. However, CBRE expects sales to pick up in the next few months with the launch of several mass-market projects.”

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Written by Ravi Chandran

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