The cooling measures announced last week has affected the first major residential project to be launched since August 30.
At yesterday’s preview of NV Residences located in Pasir Ris, the developers had sold approximately 160 units of the 200 units launched in the 99-year leasehold, 642-unit private condominium, at an average price of $830 psf.
While that was not a bad outcome, market watchers could not help comparing this result with the 300 units sold at the Tree House condo located in Chestnut Avenue during its first day of preview in April, at an average price of $800 psf.
Commenting on the sales at NV Residences, Gerry de Silva, a spokesperson for Hong Leong Group, said that “there’s definitely some impact on our sales from the property measures. We would have sold many more units if not for the measures. But we’re quite happy with the sales outcome.”
“Some of the speculators are out. Some potential buyers may be checking how their financing will be affected by the new rules before they commit.”
Separately, OCBC Bank admits that it is starting to feel the effect of lesser home loan applications as the recent cooling measures begin to bite.
Housing loans have been the largest driver of loans growth for banks in Singapore throughout the recession and since the recovery.
Based on data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, total housing loans saw a 22 percent growth over the year to end-June, to $101.1 billion, a third of all Singapore-dollar loans by banks in the country.
Housing loans climbed 2.4 percent in July, to $103.57 billion from $101.13 billion last month, exceeding the 0.7 percent growth in total bank lending.
Since last week’s announcement of the property measures, several home seekers have withdrawn from the market to assess the effects of the changes. Those with outstanding home loans would be affected if they purchase another property since they can borrow only about 70 percent of the value of the new unit, down from 80 percent.
“Over the past week, we have seen fewer applications for home loans as potential home buyers take a step back to assess how the recent announcements regarding the property market would impact them,” said Phang Lah Hwa, head of consumer secured lending at OCBC Bank.