Singapore's resale condo market posts strong showing in 2021, prices up 10.3%: SRX, 99.co

Jan 12, 2022

SINGAPORE'S resale condominium market has ended another year on a strong note, with prices jumping 10.3 per cent and total resale volumes surging 81.8 per cent year on year to 20,079 units resold, flash figures from SRX Property and 99.co showed on Tuesday (Jan 11).

The rise in resale prices outpaced the 1.4 per cent increase recorded in 2020, and 1.8 per cent growth recorded in 2019.

Condo resale prices in all regions saw gains. The outside of central region (OCR) saw the largest increase at 11 per cent, followed by the core central region (CCR) which rose 10.3 per cent and the rest of central region (RCR) - up 9.2 per cent.

Month on month, overall prices climbed 1 per cent from November 2021. The CCR, RCR and OCR saw prices rise by 0.6 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

Prices have likely trended stronger since October 2021 on spillover demand from new launches and demand from en bloc deals done earlier in the year, said Mark Yip, chief executive of Huttons Asia.

The jury is still out whether the latest round of property cooling measures introduced in mid-December would dampen robust demand seen in 2021.

More clarity is expected in coming months, as the market “takes stock” and adjusts to the new curbs, noted several analysts.

PropNex Realty head of research and content Wong Siew Ying said: “While the new cooling measures imposed by the government from Dec 16 could have led some buyers to defer their purchase decision, feedback from our agents suggest that there haven’t been any major knee-jerk reactions on the part of buyers and sellers just yet.”

Christine Sun, senior vice-president of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, said it may take another 2 to 3 months of observation to assess the full impact of the new cooling measures.

The latest round of cooling measures may also cause developers to watch for clearer signs of the impact on the broader market and on homebuyers’ behaviour in the coming months before deciding on their next move, said Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ERA.

“This could lead to some of the larger en bloc sale tenders to close in January and February 2022 without bids that would meet the reserve prices,” Mak noted.

Resale volumes fell for the fourth straight month in December 2021, most likely due to seasonality where sales and viewings tend to slow, noted property analysts.

About 1,563 units were resold in December 2021, 1.2 per cent lower than the 1,582 units resold the month before. Year on year, resale volumes were 4.1 per cent higher than in December 2020, and 86.3 per cent higher than the 5-year average volumes for the month of December.

In December 2021, more than half or 59.1 per cent of resale transactions came from the OCR, 23.7 per cent from the RCR and 17.2 per cent from the CCR.

In the same month, a unit at Altez fetched the highest transacted price at S$14.8 million. In the RCR, the most expensive condo resale price was S$7.2 million for a unit at Corals At Keppel Bay, while a unit at Grand Duchess At St Patrick's resold for S$3.95 million and fetched the highest transacted price in the OCR.

99.co and SRX said the overall median capital gain for December 2021 was S$217,000, representing an S$8,000 drop from a month ago.

District 21 (Clementi Park and Upper Bukit Timah) posted the highest median capital gain of S$760,000, while District 1 (Boat Quay, Raffles Place and Marina) was the only district that posted a median capital loss of S$80,000.

99.co and SRX calculates capital gain or loss of a condo resale unit by comparing the current transacted price with the previous transacted price of the same unit. Capital gain data only includes districts with more than 10 matching transactions.