Singapore new private home sales down 32.3% to 823 in September

Oct 14, 2021

NEW private home sales continued to ease in September following August's drop. Based on caveats lodged, analysts estimated that developers in Singapore sold 823 new private homes in September, down 32.3 per cent from August's 1,215 units.

Comparing year on year, the estimates are 38.1 per cent lower than the 1,329 new private homes sold in September 2020.

Analysts said the decline was within expectations, with developers holding off major launches last month.

Including executive condominiums (ECs), which are public-private housing hybrids, the tally reached 1,285 units. This is down 2.8 per cent from sales in the previous month and 7.2 per cent from that of September last year.

Best sellers



Excluding ECs, last month's best selling project was Normanton Park, which sold 78 units at a median price of S$1,832 per square foot (psf).

Meanwhile, Parc Greenwich, which was the newest development to enter the market last month, moved 335 of its 496 units at a median price of S$1,229.

Including ECs, the project was also best-selling in September, making up about 26.1 per cent of the month's new home sales and 72.5 per cent of the month's EC sales.

Price range



Trending upwards, homes in the S$1.5 million to S$2 million range led the month by making up 35 per cent of transactions, excluding ECs. This was followed by homes in the S$2 million to S$3 million bracket, which contributed to 26.4 per cent of the month's sales.

Meanwhile, some 24.7 per cent of transactions were for new homes in the S$1 million to S$1.5 million bracket.

By district



The outside central region (OCR) continued to lead the month, making up 42.2 per cent of new home sales, excluding ECs, in September.

Meanwhile, the rest of central region (RCR) and core central region (CCR) accounted for 37.7 per cent and 20.2 per cent respectively, data from OrangeTee & Tie showed.

Analysts' take

According to Christine Sun, OrangeTee & Tie's senior vice-president of research and analytics, sales were stifled by the seventh lunar month, which lasted until Sep 6, as well as viewing restrictions imposed on Sep 27. She noted that this "kept would-be buyers on the sidelines".

"Developers had also held back most major launches during this period," she added.

Meanwhile, Lee Sze Teck, senior director of research at Huttons Asia, said that the numbers are "within expectations" as there were no major launches in the month.

Despite the lower numbers, he noted that sales in the CCR were "remarkably strong" given the lack of launches in the area.

According to Lee, this could be due to changes in home-school distance calculations for Primary 1 registrations in 2022.

"As a result of the change, all blocks in Fourth Avenue Residence are now within 1km of Raffles Girls Primary while 5 out of 7 blocks at Leedon Green are within 1km of Nanyang Primary. These two projects are the top 2 selling projects in CCR in September," Lee said.

Looking at the OCR, Nicholas Mak, ERA's head of research and consultancy, noted that sales in the area, which dropped to 347 units in September following August's 720, are "within the normal range" for a month with no new launches.

That said, he noted that the drop could be credited to price increases among popular OCR projects.

Mak added that among the seven best-selling OCR developments, five have seen price increases of between 1 per cent and 4.1 per cent between August and September.

"Over the same period, the sales in these five projects dropped between one unit for The Jovell and 241 units for The Watergardens at Canberra," Mak said.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority will release the official monthly sales data for September on Oct 15.