Rising land bids are unsustainable: REDAS president

Rising land bids are not sustainable enough to continue on in Singapore’s market, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS) Augustine Tan said in a speech at a mid-autumn festival lunch last Wednesday (Oct 4).

“With property measures in place, slow growth in Singapore’s population and manpower curbs, we do not see a runaway demand in sales transaction volume and property prices in the next few years,” he added.

Tan also pointed out that buyers are still price sensitive.

“If the prevailing ‘bullish’ appetite for residential land persists while demand (for end units) is not sustained, it will hasten the compounding effects of increasing supply and high vacancy,” he cautioned.

His warning follows a series of record-breaking en bloc sales and a hike in private home prices for the first time in four years.

In August, Tampines Court was sold for S$970 million, the biggest deal for a former Housing and Urban Development Company property in a decade.

Other multi-million dollar deals include the sale of Rio Casa, Serangoon Ville and Eunosville.