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Thread: New home sales fall to lowest level in 5 years

  1. #1
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    Default New home sales fall to lowest level in 5 years

    http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...years-20140116

    New home sales fall to lowest level in 5 years

    Developers released fewer units in December as cooling measures bite

    Published on Jan 16, 2014

    By Cheryl Ong


    SALES of new homes plunged to their lowest level in five years last month as cooling measures and economic uncertainty hit the market.

    Developers released fewer units in the wake of growing resistance from buyers, who are becoming increasingly keen to hold out for lower prices.

    The result was that only 259 units were sold last month - the lowest since January 2009 and a remarkable 80 per cent down on the 1,271 units snapped up in November.

    Last month's sales brought the 2013 tally to 15,015, which was 32.4 per cent lower than the 22,197 units sold in 2012, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

    Market watchers said December is typically a slow sales period. But they noted last month's figures were still in stark contrast with December 2012, when 1,410 new units were moved.

    Confidence in the property market was still high then, noted Mr Ong Teck Hui, national director of research and consultancy at property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.

    Cooling measures imposed since those heady days have been reining in the red-hot market.

    Heftier additional buyers' stamp duties were implemented in January last year. This included levying 5 per cent duty on permanent residents buying their first home, and 7 per cent for Singaporeans buying their second. Foreigners also had to stump up a levy of 15 per cent for each home.

    Tighter lending guidelines, known as the total debt servicing ratio framework, introduced last June made buying a home even tougher by capping a borrower's total debt repayments at 60 per cent of gross monthly income.

    URA figures out earlier this month showed that overall private home prices for the three months to Dec 31 sank by 0.8 per cent from the previous quarter.

    This was the first slide since the first quarter of 2012 and reversed the 0.4 per cent gain in the third quarter.

    Ms Chia Siew Chuin, director of research and advisory at property firm Colliers International, said developers responded to tepid demand by focusing on moving unsold units instead of launching new ones last month.

    Only 118 new units were released, the lowest since December 2008 - when the global financial crisis was setting in - with just 157 units released.

    The best-selling project last month was Guillemard Suites in Geylang - launched in November - with 26 units sold at a median price of $1,494 per sq ft (psf).

    The Glades in Tanah Merah sold 18 units at a median price of $1,477 psf. La Fiesta in Sengkang also moved 18 units, for a median price of $1,197 psf. La Fiesta was launched in January last year and The Glades in September.

    Analysts expect sales to pick up after Chinese New Year as a fresh wave of launches comes on the market. But buyers are likely to stay cautious, thanks to the prospect of rising interest rates following the US Federal Reserve's tapering of its massive stimulus programme.

    "Developers will deploy more aggressive strategies, such as pricing their projects competitively to move sales," said Knight Frank research head Alice Tan.

    Ms Hilda Tan, 60, a finance director who has been searching for a three-bedder for the past three months, said: "I've not made a decision because I'm still waiting for prices to soften; they are still quite high now."

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  2. #2
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    Default Home sales dive on dearth of launches

    http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/arch...nches-20140116

    Published January 16, 2014

    Home sales dive on dearth of launches

    Full-year private home sales hit 15,015 , down 32.4% from previous year's volume

    By Kalpana Rashiwala [email protected]


    [SINGAPORE] Developers' private home sales shrank to 259 units (excluding executive condominiums, or ECs) in December 2013 - a big drop from 1,271 units in November and 1,410 units in December 2012.

    Though the figure - the lowest since January 2009 (108 units) - was worse than market expectations, no panic buttons have been pressed.

    The December drop was due largely to developers' strategy of holding back launches and gathering interest first, said agents.

    In fact, they launched just 118 new private homes last month - the least since the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) first released monthly developer housing sales data in June 2007. In December 2012, 1,011 units were launched.

    "Having sprinted for the first half of the year, developers took a breather in December to allow the dust of the TDSR (Total Debt Servicing Ratio) framework to settle, and took the opportunity to gear up for the new year," said CBRE Research head Desmond Sim.

    The December number takes the preliminary 2013 tally to 15,015 - down 32.4 per cent from the record 22,197 in 2012. In 2011, the total was 15,904 and in 2010, 16,292.

    It was a tale of two halves last year. Following the TDSR rollout in late June, developers moved 5,065 private homes in the second half, or about half the 9,950 units in the first six months.

    Colliers International director Chia Siew Chuin said that the 2013 showing was still "very healthy". Despite the December slide, developers still managed to find buyers for 2,635 homes in the fourth quarter, which was still 8.4 per cent ahead of Q3's 2,430. "This is nothing to be alarmed about," she stressed.

    During the global crisis, sales slumped to 419 units in Q4 2008 and 1,860 in Q4 2009.

    Sales are expected to recover in January, thanks to the launch of projects such as The Panorama in Ang Mo Kio and The Hillford in Upper Bukit Timah.

    Most property consultants' estimates of developer sales in 2014 are in the 10,000-14,500 range although ERA Realty's Eugene Lim sees a much higher number, 15,000-18,000, citing projects on sites bought at state tenders in the past 18 months that have yet to be launched.

    URA's data yesterday also shows that developers moved 74 EC units last month - against 487 in November and 849 in December 2012. For the full year, sales of the public-private housing hybrid totalled 3,596 units - about 20 per cent lower than the 4,499 in 2012.

    Nicholas Mak, SLP International executive director, sees sales of 3,000-3,500 this year.

    Developers can be expected to pace private housing launches this year according to demand, says Ong Teck Hui, national director at Jones Lang LaSalle. "If they think demand is favourable, they will be more confident about launches. Otherwise, they'll be cautious, launch less and know they can't be too optimistic about pricing."

    Analysts expect developers to continue minting a high proportion of small units in projects to keep lump-sum prices within reach of TDSR-constrained buyers.

    Said Colliers' Ms Chia: "It is becoming a buyer's market and there is general expectation of a price correction. This may put a cap on how much developers can hold prices."

    The cooling measures and TDSR framework will continue to affect demand. Softening HDB resale flat prices will also dent the pace of upgrading to private homes. Investors too may feel no great urgency to buy, as they wait for a more attractive entry point.

    "The market has reached an inflection point," said DTZ's S-E Asia chief operating officer Ong Choon Fah, "though we don't expect a significant price fall this year".

    She predicts a price drop generally of about 5-10 per cent.

    Among the positive factors that will lend support to the residential market will be Singapore's continuing economic growth and still-good employment prospects.

    "There are still a lot of people with money in their pockets, waiting to enter the market," said Mrs Ong. "They're eyeing specific projects and locations in Singapore and looking at a longer holding period.

    "Some of them are getting more adventurous, picking up properties in places like Japanese ski-resort towns and Budapest, and French chateaus."

    Colliers' analysis of URA's developer sales showed that 2013's top selling project was D'Nest in Pasir Ris Grove, at 852 units, followed by Bartley Ridge, at 751.

    Ms Chia said: "The majority of the top 15 selling projects are located in Outside Central Region (OCR), an indication that the relatively more affordable mass-market segment continued to gain favour with buyers amid trimmed affordability levels. . ."

    Nevertheless, there was a filtering of buying demand from the mass market to the mid and higher-tiered segments in Rest of Central Region and Core Central Region.

    OCR's share of total developer sales slipped to 56 per cent last year from 72.6 per cent in 2012. Conversely, CCR and RCR constituted some 14 per cent and 30 per cent of primary market sales in 2013, an improvement from the corresponding 8.6 per cent and 18.8 per cent in 2012.

    Ms Chia said: "Some buyers are likely to be attracted to homes in RCR and CCR on the back of narrowing price gaps between suburban homes and those in the central region. Healthy interest in some popular projects such as Sky Vue and Thomson Three in RCR came at the expense of price adjustments due to reduced affordability levels."

  3. #3
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    Default

    so many cm how to buy
    In the final analysis.....its NOT whether you have a diploma,degree,masters OR PHD....its whether you have a HDB/PC/EC or LANDED...

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by radha08 View Post
    so many cm how to buy
    Hi...My method - Show hand.

    I have sold all properties in exchange for a Landed.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by yowetan View Post
    Hi...My method - Show hand.

    I have sold all properties in exchange for a Landed.
    Wow, congrats!
    Where?

  6. #6
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    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by yowetan View Post
    Hi...My method - Show hand.

    I have sold all properties in exchange for a Landed.
    congratulations, yowetan. so, with all your properties sold successfully (with COV for the HDBs, not too sure how many as I didn't follow your story all the way), did you still have to pick up a loan for the new Landed? nonetheless, it is good that your families now have more space to co-exist. even your dogs will be happier. 8)

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