Prices of good class bungalows (GCBs), considered the most expensive homes in Singapore, grew 6.7 percent to average $1,488 psf in H1 2014 from $1,395 psf in 2013, a CBRE report said.
The uptick was due to the sale of four smaller bungalows with land areas below 15,000 sq ft, for between $1,494 psf and $1,811 psf.
Based on caveats analysis by CBRE, 15 GCBs changed hands in the first six months of this year, compared to 29 for the whole of 2013.
Of the 15 deals, five went for above $30 million each.
The priciest bungalow sold in the first half went for $31.80 million. Located along Cable Road in the Tanglin area, that translates to $1,904 psf on the land area of 16,706 sq ft.
According to the report, sales activity in the GCB market has been rather selective this year. “The mismatch in price expectations between buyers and sellers means a longer time is needed for deals to be struck.”
But CBRE believes there will still be interest in this market for the remainder of the year, attributed to limited commodity. There are only 2,800 such bungalows in Singapore.
Furthermore, as GCB owners have strong holding power, there won’t be fire sales.
“Under the current soft market conditions as well as with the property measures in place, buyers tend to be mainly end-users rather than investors. Taking into account the constraints posed by the TDSR framework, interest might shift to bungalows of lower value ($10 million to $15 million) if there are owners looking to sell,” stated the report.
These would likely be smaller bungalows, or those located outside districts 10, 11 and 21, like in the Chestnut Avenue and Windsor Park GCB areas.
CBRE expects the total number of GCBs sold this year will range between 20 to 30 units.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
