Northwave will be the first EC to have an indoor badminton court cum function hall. Source: Hao Yuan Investment
Northwave executive condominium (EC) saw 20 units sold during its first day of bookings last Saturday (9 July), despite receiving 240 e-applications, reported The Business Times.
Consultants attributed the project’s lacklustre showing to various factors, such as poor transport links and oversupply in the market.
Situated at Woodlands Avenue 12, the 358-unit project is a 10-minute walk to Sembawang MRT station, or two stops away from Woodlands Regional Centre.
Meanwhile, two completed ECs within the vicinity – Woodsvale and NorthOaks – have reached the 10-year mark. Market watchers noted that these projects are located much closer to Admiralty MRT station, and were developed by established firms.
Woodsvale was developed by Pidemco Land, which was then merged with DBS Land to form CapitaLand, while NorthOaks was developed by the Hong Leong Holdings, the privately held property arm of Hong Leong Group.
Northwave, on the other hand, is the fourth residential project of Hao Yuan Investment in Singapore, and its third EC project following Forestville and Sea Horizon.
In today’s buyers’ market, upgraders can afford to be choosy, whether in the private condominium market, new EC market and resale EC market, said Nicholas Mak, Executive Director at SLP International.
In addition to Woodsvale and NorthOaks, there is a substantial overhang of unsold units in previous EC projects, namely The Brownstone, Bellewoods, The Criterion and Signature at Yishun.
Mak expects the oversupply situation in the EC market to improve after one to one-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, Ku Swee Yong, CEO of Century 21 Singapore, said it may be time for the government to review the EC scheme’s relevance.
He revealed that there may be around 3,000 to 4,000 launched but unsold EC units, and the poor performance is an “obvious indicator that we have flooded the market with too much”.
“In fact, increasing the household income to $12,000 for HDB BTO (Build-To-Order) purchases has cannibalised the number of eligible buyers,” he said. “The authorities really should review the need for an EC scheme.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
