New private home sales down nearly 24% in August on the back of tighter restrictions, fewer launches
Sep 15, 2021
DEVELOPERS moved 1,215 new private homes in August - a month which had the Hungry Ghost Festival as well as several weeks of heightened restrictions - nearly 24 per cent lower than July's take-up.
There were also fewer project launches during the month. Among them was 448-unit The Watergardens at Canberra, which sold nearly 60 per cent of its units at a median price of S$1,469 per square foot (psf) at launch, thanks to demand from HDB upgraders.
Compared to the corresponding month in August last year, sales of new private homes were marginally, or nearly 3.5 per cent, lower than the 1,258 units sold by developers then.
Mark Yip, chief executive of Huttons Asia, said that despite the Hungry Ghost Month, developers sold more than 1,000 units - a better figure than last year's Hungry Ghost Festival period.
Mr Yip added that nowadays "buyers were probably less concerned about committing to a home purchase" during the festival's period.
Of the 1,215 units sold in August this year, nearly 60 per cent were located in Outside the Central Region (OCR), which tends to be more affordable.
Last month, 836 units were launched for sale, of which 296 were in the Core Central Region, 140 in Rest of the Central Region and 400 were in the OCR.
In comparison, 1,104 homes were launched for sale by developers in July, or about 24 per cent more than August. Meanwhile, the number of homes released in August this year was 47 per cent less than the corresponding period in 2020.
The figures - which were released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Wednesday based on its survey of licensed housing developers - exclude ECs, which are a public-private housing hybrid.
Including ECs, developers moved 1,322 units in August, 24 per cent lower than the 1,746 new private homes sold in July and about 1 per cent higher than the 1,309 units sold in August last year.
Christine Sun, OrangeTee & Tie's senior vice-president (research & analytics), said: "Developers are likely to step up their project launches after the Hungry Ghost Month, which could help boost sales in the coming weeks. Some of the upcoming launches include the 696-unit CanningHill Piers at River Valley Road and the 230-unit Perfect Ten at Bukit Timah Road."
Huttons projects that developers will sell 12,000 new private homes for 2021 as a whole, while OrangeTee puts the figure at 11,000 units. Last year, developers moved 9,982 units.