Although the property market experiences a decline nowadays, there are still new private properties being seized quickly in the market. Last month, the sales of these new private residences increased to 1,323 units, recalling back the days when the property market went boom, according to observers.
There were only 108 units sold last January. The total was largely supported by two recently launched heartland condos – the 517-unit Caspian in Jurong and the 293-unit Alexis at Alexandra Road. Prices began from $340,000 at Caspian and $450,000 at Alexis.
According to Adam Tan, communications manager of PropNex ”Developers probably realised after January’s dismal sales that they had to lower their prices, while buyers noticed these discounts and decided to buy.”
Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CBRE, said that the majority of buyers last month were upgraders for HDB who put purchasing on hold while residential prices increased in 2006 and 2007. He came up with an estimate that the sales of private homes this month will raise approximately 400 to 600 units, making the total of 1,800 to 2,000 units sold for the quarter of January to March.
“A few projects are still selling fairly well, but they are not as large-scale as the projects launched last month,’ said Mr Li, who predicted that sales figures are likely to hover around 500 to 700 units a month for the second quarter of the year“.
There are excepted developments including Bedok’s Waterfront Waves, which had its first launch last year, but was re-launched in March, and Mi Casa condo in Choa Chu Kang, is expected by analysts to be launched at the month’s end. They consist of 405 and 457 units, respectively.
According to Dr. Chua Yang Liang, research and consultancy head at Jones Lang LaSalle Singapore, the rate of this month’s new launches is expected to be to the same with last month’s rate. He added ”This is backed by housing developers’ confidence in the latent demand by genuine homebuyers, encouraging them to release more”. However, he noted that this month’s take-up rate island-wide could decline as the market was rather unpredictable, especially in light of the unstable performance of global stock market.
Mr. Tan said ”Many people ask that question but they should really be asking themselves where they want to buy, what they are buying it for, and what are their risk profiles”.
He added, “Don’t buy blindly just because the price is good. As some of these places have two or three years till their completion, one should also consider the property’s surroundings, such as existing or future infrastructure. Go into this investment with about five to 10 years in mind”.