The Wisteria in Yishun is currently 58 percent sold.
Property developers sold 843 private housing units, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), in March 2016, according to new data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
This represents a 178 percent jump from the 303 units sold in the previous month. Year-on-year, sales increased by 37.5 percent.
OrangeTee said this is the highest tally of monthly developer sales since July last year, when 1,655 units were moved.
But analysts were not surprised by the surge in new home sales. DTZ said the period of March to May tends to see an increased level of activity.
“Notwitstanding, consistent with what we see on the ground, there are more buyers returning to the market. Most of these buyers look for developments at choice locations at relatively lower quantums,” noted the consultancy.
OrangeTee explained that there has been an accumulation of pent-up demand from buyers who have adopted a wait-and-see attitude due to the property cooling measures.
While these measures have side-lined many buyers due to the increase in upfront costs and tighter financing conditions, buyers are still willing to commit when there is perceived value in the market, the firm said.
“Good quality projects coupled with competitive pricing is the key to excite dormant demand lurking in the private residential sector.”
Meanwhile, two of the best-performing new launches in March were Cairnhill Nine and The Wisteria.
Located at Cairnhill Road, the 268-unit Cairnhill Nine by CapitaLand sold 177 units last month at a median price of $2,441 psf. Over in Yishun, NorthernOne’s The Wisteria saw 125 out of its 216 units snapped up at a median price of $1,112 psf.
Looking ahead, OrangeTee said three new projects will be launched in April and May, namely Sturdee Residences (305 units), Stars of Kovan (395 units) and Gem Residences (578 units).
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
