The private residential market saw a revival in developer launches and sales activity, according to a new report by Colliers International.
However, it was at the expense of lower home prices.
Launch volume in the Outside Central Region (OCR) increased 9.5 percent QoQ to 1,619 in 2Q 2014, while sales volumes increased 59.1 percent QoQ to 1,631 units.
The 1,619 homes released in the OCR accounted for 54.1 percent of all new homes launched in Q2 2014 while the 1,631 suburban homes sold made up 61.4 percent of the quarter’s total developer sales.
“With on-going affordability concerns amid the more regulated buying environment, developers concentrated on launching the more affordably-priced mass market homes in the OCR,” the report said.
Buying interest also returned to the Rest of Central Region (RCR). Sales volume increased 57.2 percent QoQ to 899 units, while launch volume was recorded at 993 units. These accounted for 33.2 percent of all units launched and 33.8 percent of all units sold in the quarter.
Notably, RCR has not seen any significant launches since the release of the 281-unit The Hillford in January 2014.
The Core Central Region (CCR) saw some improvement in launch activity, but buying sentiments remained lukewarm as homebuyers were less receptive to the new launches there. Sales volume rose 5.8 percent QoQ to 128 units in Q2 2014 despite developers releasing 378 units, nine times the number of units launched in the preceding quarter.
The market share of the high-end/luxury market segment was the smallest of all new homes launched and sold at 12.6 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.
Image: Of the 700 units launched at Coco Palms, 635 were bought by the end of June 2014.
Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
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