The private home market remained firm during the first quarter of 2010, with more expensive units changing hands and transaction volumes on the rise.
Based on DTZ’s analysis of caveats lodged, there were 8,159 private residences sold in Q1 2010, 22 percent higher than that in the preceding quarter and more than double the figure a year earlier.
Those with private addresses had purchased additional homes, with HDB upgraders accounting for 34 percent of all transactions during Q1.
Buyers with HDB addresses were involved in as much as 56 percent of all transactions made in Q1 2009, when the property market was still recovering. “HDB upgraders are gradually taking a backseat” as home prices surge, said DTZ.
In Q1 2010, the average subsale price of non-landed private homes escalated to $1,190, just a bit lower than the earlier peak of $1,246 in Q3 2007.
The price level in Q1 is up nine percent from the $1,090 in Q4, and 46 percent more than the $815 a year ago.
Although subsale prices surged, such deals continued to comprise just 13 percent of all non-landed home transactions.
Properties costing at least $3 million also saw greater demand, with 737 or nine percent of all caveats in Q1 lodged for these homes. In Q4 2009, only 525, or 8.4 percent of all transactions took place within this price range. The figures in Q1 2009 were even lower at 66, or two percent of all deals.
“The proportion of higher-priced homes that changed hands in (Q1) increased as interest in the higher-end tiers grew,” said DTZ.
Phylicia Ang, residential director of Savills, suggested that the sovereign debt crisis in Greece and other European countries, coupled with the volatility in the stock market, may have caused several prospective buyers to stand on the sidelines. However, “we are still seeing deals happening in the high-end market”, she said. “For the year, I think we will still get stable demand.”
Mr. Nicholas Mak, a real estate lecturer from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, said: large amounts of “foreign money do not seem to have come in yet.” Sales of high-end homes are highly dependent on market sentiments, but “financial markets are not totally in the pink of health.”
DTZ said that foreign buyers accounted for 11 percent of all purchases of private homes during Q1, down from 12 percent quarter-on-quarter. Their share of the market reached 14 percent to 15 percent during the boom in Q4 2007.