New home sales in Singapore surged last month despite global macroeconomic uncertainties and stock market volatility, driven by strong demand in mass market condominiums from HDB upgraders.
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) data released yesterday showed developers sold 1,631 private homes last month, up 20.7 per cent from the 1,351 units in August. A total of 1,321 units were sold in the outlying areas, 260 in the city fringes and only 50 in the prime districts.
Including Executive Condominiums (ECs), September sales hit 2,064 units. This is the highest monthly volume this year and a strong 26 per cent jump from August's 1,638 units.
September's results were remarkable and largely contributed by the sale of A Treasure Trove closing 683 units, making up 42 per cent of the total transactions. These homebuyers are mainly HDB upgraders and the purchase rationale was the attractive pricing, with median price of S$915psf in this development, and its proximity to the Punggol MRT.
The number of private homes, excluding ECs, launched last month rose 39.1 per cent from the previous month to 1,919 units - and 1,504 of these, or 78.4 per cent, were in the OCR.
A total of 433 EC units were sold last month, up from 290 in August, it was likely that the latest Government move to raise the household income ceiling for EC buyers from S$10,000 to S$12,000 per month had given a boost to sales.
For the rest of the year, developers would be monitoring the impact of the euro zone crisis on the Singapore economy to time their project launches.
Looking at launch-ready projects in Q4 and with prices remaining stable, it is unlikely that there will be the same level of take-up as in Q2 and Q3. Total new home sales volume in 2011 is expected to exceed the 14,688 units sold in 2009, but it remains to be seen whether it can outdo the record 16,292 units sold in 2010.
Land for 1,900 more homes to go on sale.
To meet persistent housing demand, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will be selling four sites this month that can yield about 1,900 homes, adding to the 13,825 units that have been launched under the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme this year.
The first of the four sites, in Alexandra Road near the Redhill MRT, was launched yesterday under the Confirmed List of the GLS.
Based on a plot ratio of 4.9, the roughly one-hectare site can produce a maximum gross floor area of 48,768 sq m, or 540 to 580 housing units.
The Alexandra Road site is one of the more attractive sites on the current GLS programme. The tender could attract about 15 to 20 bids, with the top bids likely to be submitted by major developers with deep pockets and holding power because if the winning developer plans to sell the units in this project at prices above $1,350 psf in the near future, it could need more than a year to sell all the units.
Based on analysis, this site can be expected to fetch a winning bid of about S$305 million to S$341 million, or S$581 to S$650 psf per plot ratio.
The other three sites will be released on Oct 27 and can potentially yield another 1,345 housing units.
Source: TODAY – 18 October 2011
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