A report from Savills Research has revealed that location and affordability were the only two factors that helped move residential sales in the third quarter this year.
New private home sales fell to 482 units in July as buyers digested the new total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) framework and developers withheld new housing stock, the report said.
For the quarter, sales volume fell 46.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and 58.9 percent year-on-year, despite witnessing a rebound in August and September.
Over in the secondary market, sales volume also fell 36.8 percent quarter-on-quarter (65.1 percent year-on-year) to 1,521 units from the previous quarter’s 2,407 units.
Meanwhile, the private residential property price index moved up by 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3, while the average high-end non-landed home price monitored by Savills slipped by 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, or its second consecutive quarterly decline.
Savills feels that “projects that are perceived to be reasonably priced and located in easily accessible areas that had not seen many launches in the past are likely to enjoy better take-up”.
“In addition, the analysis of the caveats lodged from Q1 2012 to Q3 2013 shows that in the new sale segment, home buyers are now favouring smaller private non-landed homes islandwide, with sizes from >60 sq m to 80 sq m,” noted the report.
Alan Cheong, Research Head at Savills, said: “The strong performance at some recent launches shows that demand is still strong, but discriminating. Developers will henceforth have to conduct detailed market analyses before acquiring land.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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