Due to an unprecedented building boom in the wake of the global financial crisis (GFC), Singapore’s three mass market districts, namely 19, 27 and 3, now account for about a third of the total unsold inventory of condo units within the city-state, reported Singapore Business Review citing research from Maybank Kim Eng.
District 19, particularly Punggol, Hougang and Serangoon Garden, registered the most number of unsold units with 1,832 executive condominiums (ECs) and 2,370 private homes unable to find buyers, the report said.
Overall, the district has 4,202 unsold homes, which makes up 14.4 percent of Singapore’s total unsold inventory.
Meanwhile, Sembawang and Yishun in District 27 account for 12.1 percent of the city-state’s total unsold stock, or 3,531 units (2,468 ECs and 1,063 private units).
District 3, specifically Tiong Bahru and Queenstown, has 2,876 unsold private units, which accounts for 9.9 percent of the total unsold inventory. There are no ECs within the area.
Maybank Kim Eng believes that mass market homes face a huge risk since prices within this sector only fell marginally.
“We reiterate that the mass market has the biggest downside risk. This is because prices in the OCR (Outside Central Region) have corrected the least since the GFC. Furthermore, recent increases in the household-income ceiling for the application of ECs from $12,000 to $14,000 could shrink the pool of mass market home buyers,” it said.
Aerial view of an apartment unit with rooftop pool. (Photo by Hu Totya: Wikimedia Commons)
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
