Various factors caused April’s private home sales, excluding executive condos (ECs), to hit 2,487 units. This is the highest figure since the sales volume peaked at 2,772 units in July 2009.
“Not only did demand chase supply, it in fact exceeded it because new homes launched for the month only numbered 2,386 units,” said Alan Cheong, Head of Research at Savills, adding that the uptrend could indicate a stronger market.
Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex Realty, said: “It is clearly the HDB upgraders who are entering the private property market; these are genuine buyers with mid- to long-term perspectives sustaining the market in the first quarter of 2012.”
He added that buying trends have not been affected by the recent cooling measures, although the policies have created short-term speculation in the private property resale market.
“The low bank borrowing interest rates and HDB upgraders’ interest had contributed and certainly helped boost the April sales figure,” noted Ismail.
Chia Siew Chuin, Director of Research & Advisory at Colliers, observed that developers had shifted their focus to previously launched developments last month while delaying new launches to May, which could be attributed to the upcoming amendments in the Housing Developers Rules.
Following the four consecutive months that the market has shown improved performance, JLL has revised its previous forecast for this year from 18,000 to 20,000 units, “provided no further policy measures are introduced”.
Ismail expects this month’s sales figures to be around 2,500 to 3,000 units as developers have prepared a slew of new launches including ECs.
However, JLL cautioned that “the risk of further policy intervention to maintain more stable market demand cannot be ruled out. We hold our earlier position that the policy to curtail excessive demand of developers’ sales could come into the market within the next few weeks”.
Colliers added that with no external risks and further policies, “strong demand driven by abundant oncoming supply of private residential homes is likely to drive overall take-up for new private homes in 2012 to beyond 16,800 units, toppling 2010’s record high of 16,292 units”.
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