http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real...es-up-10-in-h1

New sales of private homes up 10% in H1

However, developers' sales in June were half May's 1,058 units as new launches dried up amid the school holidays

By Kalpana Rashiwala

[email protected]

@KalpanaBT

Jul 16, 2016


DEVELOPERS' new private home sales halved to 536 units in June from 1,058 units in May as new launches dried up amid the June school holidays.

However, some market watchers gleaned several positive signals from the Urban Redevelopment Authority's data released on Friday, lending support to their view that the market is close to bottoming out.

The June sales figure is 42.9 per cent higher than a year ago, signalling a more positive outlook, said JLL national director Ong Teck Hui.

URA's preliminary second- quarter figure of 2,344 units has also exceeded the numbers for both the preceding quarter (1,419 units) and year-ago period (2,116 units).

Moreover, the 3,763 new private homes that developers moved in the first half of this year, based on preliminary data from URA on Friday, is nearly 10 per cent higher than the 3,427 units they sold in H1 last year.

CBRE Research's head of Singapore and South-east Asia, Desmond Sim, highlighted that this year-on-year increase took place despite the fact that there have been fewer new launches.

"In the sustained absence of new launches, buyers have been turning to existing projects. The ratio of the sales of new to previously-launched projects seems to have swung in favour of projects that were put on the market earlier.

"In H1 2016, some 73 per cent of the stock sold were from projects that had been launched more than six months ago. This is a continued positive sign for the market as the unsold stock inventory is slowly but steadily being reduced."

"The creative pricing of projects by developers was the key to successful sales," he added, alluding to some recent launches.

The URA figures on new sales are compiled from data submissions by developers of licensed projects.

Resale volumes of private homes have also been on the rise. In Q2 this year, 2,001 private homes were resold, based on URA Realis caveats information - higher than the 1,340 units resold in Q1 this year and the 1,827 units resold in Q2 last year.

One factor for the increase could be a step-up in marketing activity by developers of delicensed projects. Examples would include Wheelock Properties (Singapore) for Ardmore Three, OUE for OUE Twin Peaks and CapitaLand for d'Leedon and The Interlace.

Sales of private homes in a delicensed project, even by its developer, are classified as resales by URA. A housing project may be delicensed if it has received a Certificate of Statutory Completion and where the individual strata titles have been issued to buyers.

Based on URA's data released on Friday on developers' new sales in licensed projects in June, the chart toppers included Kingsford Waterbay (34 units sold at a median price of S$1,185 per square foot), The Glades (32 units at a median price of S$1,402 psf), Kingsford Hillview Peak (31 units at S$1,315 psf median price), The Poiz Residences (25 units at S$1,489 psf median price) and The Trilinq (22 units at S$1,369 psf median price).

All five were launched more than six months ago, noted CBRE.

Last month's only fresh launch was an eight-unit landed housing project in East Coast Terrace.

In the executive condo (EC) segment, no new EC projects went on the market last month. Developers' sales of ECs, which are a public-private housing hybrid form, shrank to 232 units in June, a 30.5 per cent decrease from the 334 units they sold in the previous month but still double the 110 EC units developers moved in June last year.

Top-selling EC projects in June 2016 included Bellewaters, The Vales and Sol Acres, which found 25 to 43 buyers each, at median prices ranging from S$779 to S$804 psf, noted JLL.

SLP International executive director Nicholas Mak noted: "There was an absence of new EC project launches for the past two consecutive months from May 2016 to June 2016. However, the situation will change in July with the launch of two new EC projects, namely Northwave and Treasure Crest."

Sales bookings at Northwave in Woodlands Avenue 12 began last Saturday but are understood to have been dismal with just 20-odd units sold on the launch day; sales at Treasure Crest along Anchorvale Crescent in the Sengkang area will begin today.

In the private housing segment, CapitaLand on Friday held a private preview for its 99-year landed housing project, Victoria Park Villas.

Located on a 403,000 sq ft site at the junction of Coronation Road and Victoria Park Road, the District 10 project will comprise 106 semi-detached houses and three bungalows - all featuring built-in smart home systems.

Floor areas of the semi-detached houses are between 4,155 sq ft and 7,007 sq ft and their prices, S$4.3 million to S$5.8 million.

The three bungalows have floor areas between 10,904 sq ft and 11,500-plus sq ft and are priced at S$11 million to S$12 million.