The ongoing cooling measures saw the good class bungalow (GCB) market slow down, with only 13 caveats lodged in the second half of 2014 compared to 15 in the first half, revealed a CBRE report.
For the whole of 2014, 28 GCBs were sold, dipping from 29 the year before. This works out to an 8.2 percent drop in investment quantum from $681.98 million in 2013 to $626.14 million last year.
Although average GCB prices decreased by around five percent from the peak of $23.52 million in 2013 to $22.36 million last year, “transactions in 2014 showed that GCB prices were still holding up”, the report said. In fact, the land rate rose 6.7 percent to $1,428 psf in 2014 from $1,338 psf in the previous year.
Considered the most expensive homes in Singapore, a GCB is defined as a bungalow with a plot size of at least 15,070 sq ft located in one of the GCB areas. To date, there are around 2,500 such properties spread across 39 gazetted GCB areas in Singapore.
Looking ahead, CBRE noted that while property curbs have put a dent on the GCB sales volume, this asset class is expected to remain resilient due to limited supply. The consultancy predicts 20 to 30 GCBs will be sold this year as owners still have holding power if their price expectations are not met.
“We also expect the average price of GCBs with land areas of about 15,000 sq ft to hover around $22 million each, taking into account location, built-up area, age, design, terrain, frontage, etc. of the individual GCBs.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
