Private home sales rise from last December, but numbers still the lowest since 2009

SINGAPORE: Private home sales more than doubled last month in comparison to figures from December 2023. As welcome as this news is, however, January 2024’s 281 homes sold is the lowest number for January sales since 2009.

A total of just 135 units were sold last December, which industry expects say was caused by the year-end holiday lull. While January showed a considerable uptick, in January 2023, 393 units had been sold, which means a 28.5 per cent decline this year, reported The Business Times on Thursday (Feb 15), citing data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

The uptick in January’s sales was mostly due to the launch of two projects: Hillhaven and The Arcady at Boon Keng. Sales from the two projects comprised 111 units, nearly two-fifths of the total.

Notably, sales of Executive Condominiums saw a boost after Lumina Grand EC in Bukit Batok launched in December.

The low sales numbers show buyers’ tentative sentiment, BT quoted Huttons senior director of data analytics, Mr Lee Sze Teck, as saying.

Buyers in the OCR (Outside Central Region) accounted for over half (51.2 per cent) of the sales of condominiums and private apartments, while those in the RCR (Rest of Central Region) snatched up 39.9 per cent of the sales.

Meanwhile, purchases in the CCR (Core Central Region) were responsible for the remaining 8.9 per cent of new sales in January.

BT called it a “slow start to the year” for private home sales. Similarly, real estate portal PropNex said that the general buying sentiment is “still tepid.”

“Developers’ sales in the new year got off to a relatively slow start, with developers selling 281 new units (ex. EC) in January. Even though new private home sales were up by 108 per cent month on month in January, part of the reason was due to the low base in December.

In January, there were two fresh project launches (341-unit Hillhaven and 172-unit The Arcady at Boon Keng), which collectively sold 111 units, making up nearly 40 per cent of the month’s sales,” said Mr Wong Siew Ying, Head of Research & Content, PropNex Realty.

He added that many would-be buyers could wait “for more clarity on the market, following a relatively uncertain year in 2023.”

PropNex expects that sales this month will likely stay muted, with no projects expected to launch at this time. Two developments to be launched in March, Lentoria and Koon Seng House, were all previewed this month, however.

“In our view, new private home sales may only pick up in a more meaningful way from March onwards when more projects are put on the market,” added PropNex’s Mr Wong. /TISG

Read also: Price-conscious buyers may be cause of slow start to private home sales

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