New home sales in April may be 12.6% lower than the 1,780 units recorded in March, but they are still more than double the 750 units sold a year ago. Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers sold 1,555 new private homes in April.
March’s sales figure was the highest since June 2013. According to Nicholas Mak, executive director and head of research at SLP International, the robust sales recorded that month was “unsustainable”. He attributes it partly to “euphoria over the slight relaxation of the [property] cooling measures”, which came into effect on March 11.
The lower April figure was also caused by a dip in fresh launches, from 937 units in March to 714 last month, notes Ong Teck Hui, JLL national director of research and consultancy. Therefore, the corresponding take-up rate was down from 701 to 554 units on a m-o-m basis.
The top-selling project in April was Seaside Residences at Siglap View, where 419 units, or close to half the total of 841 units in the 99-year leasehold project, were sold at a median price of $1,736 psf. The strong take-up rate was not unexpected, given that the project offers sea views and is located close to the upcoming Siglap MRT station. There also has not been a new launch in the neighbourhood in more than a decade, observes SLP’s Mak.
Meanwhile, the 400-unit Artra at Alexandra View trailed with 126 units sold at a median price of $1,646 psf. Parc Riviera came in third, with 90 units sold at a median price of $1,246 psf. This brings total sales in the 752-unit, 99-year leasehold project at West Coast Vale to 496 (66%) as at end-April.
Another new launch last month was the 61-unit The Brooks I and II at Springside Walk, off Sembawang Road. Out of 28 units released, nine were sold at a median price of $1,274 psf in April.
No new EC projects were launched in April, but existing projects continued to see robust sales. A total of 371 units were sold in April, down 35.8% from 578 in March. Buyers sought out the seven to nine EC projects that were launched earlier and still have units available for sale, according to JLL.
Sol Acres was the best-selling EC project last month, with 122 units sold at a median price of $787 psf. The 1,327-unit Sol Acres is also the largest EC project to date. As at end-April, 1,109 units, or 84% of the project, had been sold. In second place was The Visionaire, which saw 53 units sold at a median price of $810 psf last month. This brings total sales in the 632-unit EC in Canberra Drive to 442, which means the project is 70% sold. Meanwhile, Parc Life at Sembawang Crescent saw 33 units sold in April at a median price of $774 psf. This brings total sales at the development to 244 units, or 39% of the total 628.
While new home sales remain healthy as sentiment improves, sales volume could be affected by the tapering of new launches in the second half of 2017, says Desmond Sim, head of CBRE Research for Singapore and South East Asia.
This article appeared in The Edge Property Pullout, Issue 780 (May 22, 2017) of The Edge Singapore.