The private residential market in Singapore roared back to life in January.
According to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Wednesday, 1,476 units were sold in January 2010, about three times the 481 units sold in December 2009.
The increase in the number of private homes sold also broke the five-month streak of declines.
The 1,476 figure is also the highest for the first month of the year since the government started to provide the monthly breakdown of sales data in the middle of 2007.
About half of the units sold or 699 units were from the prime districts. This is in line with the expectations that projects from the mid- to high-end segments will perform well this year.
Cube 8, a project by CDL, was the most popular, with 167 units sold in January at an average price of $1,286 psf.
The Shore Residences at Amber Road by Dover Rise and Whitewater Properties came in second place with 144 units sold at an average price of $1,200 psf.
The Orchard View at Angullia Park had the most expensive unit sold last month, which went for $3,243 psf.
“The reasons are: the economy has been improving; the sentiments continue to improve; demand from local buyers remains very strong and we are also increasingly seeing interest from foreign buyers,” said Ang Choon Beng, director for research and business analytics at Cushman & Wakefield Asia Pacific, when explaining January’s rebound.
“Secondly, the stock market has also held up quite well over the holiday season, at least in the first three weeks of January, and that gave the market a lot of confidence.”
Due to the Lunar New Year break, analysts expect sales in February to decline to about 700 to 800 units. But they said sales could hit more than 1,000 units per month from March to June, and prices in prime districts could trend up.
“Seventy-six percent of the new launches were well above the S$1,000 per sq ft mark. I do foresee the core central region prices still have room for a little upward increase….probably for the whole of 2010, close to another 10 percent,” said Mohamed Ismail, CEO of Propnex.
Still, several market observers said runaway price increases like those seen back in 2007 are unlikely, as concerns like credit tightening in China, weak consumer demand in the West, and potential intervention of the government to cool the market remain.
Overall, 1,424 new homes were launched for sale in January, with those in the city recording the largest increase.