Private housing sales in the primary market picked up strongly in April. Developers sold a total of 1,218 private houses including executive condominiums in April, representing 91% of the 1,344 units launched in the month. This is nearly double the 692 units sold in March and up 50% y-o-y.
Table 1: Developer sales performance in April 2015 w.r.t to March 2015 and April 2014
The strong performance can be attributed to the launch of two new developments, North Park Residences and Botanique at Bartley, in the North and North-East Region respectively. Both projects contributed 61% of the total units sold. Riding on its unique appeal as a mixed-development integrated with a transport node, North Park Residences outperformed Botanique at Bartley in terms of sales performance with 486 of 600 units launched for sale sold at a median transacted price of $1,374 psf, 6.5% higher than the $1,290 psf median price of Botanique at Bartley which sold a total of 63.5% or 254 of the 400 units.
Despite commanding a 32% higher premium than the surrounding developments sold in Yishun in the month of April, the outstanding performance of North Park Residences amid a cooling market is a testament of a possible pent-up demand for mixed-developments integrated with a transport node which are rare and limited in supply.
Table 2: North Park Residences sales versus other non-landed sales in Yishun in April
In view of the fierce competition in April, sales volume of Kingsford Waterbay and Sims Urban Oasis, the top two performing developments in March, fell by over 80% and 60% respectively landing them in the 8th and 3rd position respectively.
Number of returned units, which are units where the buyers did not exercise the Sale & Purchase Agreement, fell by 20% month-on-month in April with 37 implied units. Topping the chart is Skypark Residences with 4 returned units, a far cry from the previous champion Sims Urban Oasis with 14 returned units in March.
Table 3: Returned units in April (Developer Sales)
Table 4: Developers sales in April (excludes projects with less than 5 sales)
Source: URA, The Edge Property