New private home sales in Singapore slumped 44.2 percent in November, with only 14,087 units sold excluding executive condominiums (ECs), according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
The best performing location last month was the Core Central Region (CCR), which recorded a 45 percent increase in sales to 209 units. On the other hand, sales in the Outside Central Region (OCR) plunged 52 percent to 711 homes while the Rest of Central Region (RCR) sold 167 units.
Alan Cheong, Head of Research at Savills Singapore, said while the results may “look surprisingly weak”; this is understandable since only 773 units were launched in November. The data “gives us a trove of information to analyse how the market may perform when no large projects were launched”, he added.
Notably, developers are “taking a cautious approach, launching less number of units last month”, noted Alice Tan, Senior Manager, Research at Knight Frank Singapore.
Ong Teck Hui, National Director for Research and Consultancy at Jones Lang LaSalle, explained that many developers were holding back launches in view of the uncertain demand. The sharp decline in home sales last month also “reflect impact from the loan tightening measures imposed in October”.
According to Mohamed Ismail, Chief Executive Officer of PropNex Realty, home buyers are “taking the time to monitor the impact of the restrictions on home loan tenure and an assessment of how the world economy performs in the coming year”.
He added that the year end is “just a cyclical season as the market slows down as Singaporeans travel during this period of time”.
Moving forward, private home sales are expected to top 21,000 “despite December being a traditionally slower month”, said Joseph Tan, Executive Director for Residential at CBRE.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
Related Stories:
URA awards tender for Alexandra View site
HUDC unit sale breaks record
Home prices fall for five quarters claim is true