Sales of private homes by developers, tripled y-o-y to 1,594 units in July from 511 units in July 2014. On m-o-m basis, private home sales rose more than four-fold from 375 units in June. This surge happened on the back of more new launches totalling 1,468 units, compared with 411 units in July last year.
High Park Residences was the top-selling private residential project in July. Buyers snapped up 1,169 units of the 1,186 units launched, at a median price of $989 psf. Affordable price and close proximity to The Seletar Mall were attributed for the robust sales. Other well-located projects such as Botanique At Bartley and City Gate moved an additional 63 units and 26 units respectively in July.
Dr Chua Yang Liang, head of JLL research for Singapore and South East Asia, says: “In today’s market condition, the pricing of projects is a no brainer – affordability is the crux. Keeping the total quantum price for a decently sized unit within the affordable range of S$600,000 to S$1.4 million is key to a successful project. Maturing neighbourhoods provide the underlying upgrader population, and as long as the policies on the income ceiling for HDB flats do not change, one should expect such well-located and priced private condominium projects to perform well going forward.”
In the executive condominium (EC) segment, developers sold a total of 495 units having launched 1,155 units in July. The Brownstone was the best-selling EC project with 29% of units launched sold at a median price of $818 psf. This was followed by The Vales, which sold 79 out of the 517 units launched at a median price of $788 psf.
Desmond Sim, CBRE research head for Singapore and South East Asia, says: “July’s new home sales of 1,594 units bring the total sales for the year to date to 5,027, well within CBRE’s expected total tally of 6,000 – 7,000 for the whole of 2015.” In 2014, developers sold 7,316 private residential units.
CBRE expects the next two months to be relatively quiet due in part to the Jubilee celebrations, the election fever and the lunar seventh month, which will probably spook sales. “Only a handful of major projects of more than 300 units and a few prime district projects are expected for the rest of the year,” added Sim.
Five best-selling private projects in July
Figure 1a: Residential units launched by developers
Figure 1b: Residential units sold by developers