Property developers are speeding up the launches of their residential properties, with some developers releasing projects five months after the site’s acquisition.
This is contrary to the trend in past years, when the majority of developers took approximately 12 to 15 months to launch properties after purchasing a land parcel.
However, with the looming uncertainty in the real estate market, developers seem to think that it is better to take a bet on prices sooner.
According to data gathered by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), 10 of the 11 government land sites acquired last year were launched within eight months of acquisition.
Two projects — Chip Eng Seng’s and NTUC Choice Homes Co-operative’s Prive executive condominium (EC) and Fragrance Group’s Kovan Grandeur — had a turnaround time of only five months.
This trend was also observed for government sites in 2009, when five sites were all rolled out in six to 11 months.
“In the past two years, we have observed that the turnaround time for projects has been reduced to less than 12 months,” said Joseph Tan, Executive Director for Residential at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
In today’s market, it is “not uncommon” for real estate developers to turn around their sites within nine to 12 months for launch, depending on the complexity and scale of the projects, said City Developments (CityDev).
“As with industry practice, detailed planning and preparations to have our projects launch-ready commence soon after the sites are acquired,” said a spokeswoman for CityDev.
However, the group, which believes in maximising value from its sites, will time launches in line with home buyers’ appetites, she added.