SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) – Property developers sold 527 private residential units (excluding executive condos) in February, a 22.5% m-o-m drop from January’s 680 units, according to URA. On a y-o-y basis, it is an 18.3% drop from 645 units in February 2021.
“February is traditionally a slow month as the Lunar New Year tends to fall in this month,” notes Lee Sze Teck, Huttons Asia senior director of research. Only one new project was launched last month, namely the 32-unit Royal Hallmark at Haig Lane. Ten units in the project (31%) were sold at a median price of $1,905 psf.
Apart from seasonal lull, Christine Sun, senior vice president of research & analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, attributes the steep drop in new home sales to a combination of declining housing supply and global uncertainties arising from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, as the war escalates, there could be a resurgence in demand for “safe haven” assets, which could benefit Singapore’s real estate market, she points out.
By market segment, the city fringe or Rest of Central Region (RCR) accounted for 266 units (50.5%) of the month’s sales, with 160 units (30.4%) sold in the suburban areas in the Outside Central Region (OCR) and 101 units (19.2%) in the Core Central Region (CCR), says Tricia Song, CBRE head of research for Southeast Asia. This compares with 42.6% in the RCR, 41.2% in the OCR and 16.2% in the CCR in January.
The 1,862-unit Normanton Park remains the top-performing project in February, with 85 units sold at a median price of $1,855 psf, followed by Avenue South Residence and Dairy Farm Residences, selling 32 units each, with median prices of $2,371 psf and $1,716 psf respectively, says Ong Teck Hui, JLL senior director of research & consultancy (see table).
The latest sales means that Normanton Park is 89.5% sold as of end-February. The 1,074-unit Avenue South Residence is likewise 89% sold. Meanwhile, the 460-unit Dairy Farm Residences is 95.4% sold to date.
In the CCR, sales were contributed by projects such as Leedon Green (14 units), Fourth Avenue Residences (13 units) and Kopar at Newton (13 units), which collectively accounted for 40% of the sales in that segment, according to CBRE. Dairy Farm Residences and the 1,410-unit The Florence Residences sold 32 units and 26 units respectively, accounting for over a third of the OCR sales in February, adds Song.
The relatively strong sales momentum in February led to median prices in the RCR rising 1.9% m-o-m, says Lam Chern Woon, head of research & consultancy at Edmund Tie. Price movements on average were more modest at about 0.1% to 0.2% m-o-m for the other two market segments, according to Edmund Tie.
In the pipeline for launch are four projects: two are located in the RCR, and another two in the OCR. One of the most significant projects is North Gaia, an EC project at Yishun Avenue 9. The 616-unit development is expected to be launched sometime in 2Q2022. “It is more than six years since the last new launch of an EC project at Yishun,” comments Nicholas Mak, head of research & consultancy, ERA Realty. They were The Criterion and Signature at Yishun, both of which were launched in 2015.