SINGAPORE: New private home sales typically see a lull at the end of the year, however, sales in December sank to a near-15-year low.
Sales of new private homes last month fell 82.8 per cent from November, with developers selling just 135 units, data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday (Jan 15) showed. This figure excludes executive condominiums (ECs).
This is the lowest figure recorded since January 2009, when a mere 108 units were sold amid the global financial crisis, said OrangeTee & Tie’s senior vice president of research and analytics Christine Sun.
A total of 784 units were sold in November 2023.
On a year-on-year basis, new private home sales fell 20.6 per cent last month from the 170 units sold in December 2022.
LACK OF LAUNCHES, YEAR-END HOLIDAYS
Property analysts attributed the lull in the market to the year-end holidays and the lack of major project launches during the period.
As December is “traditionally” a quieter period in the real estate market, a decline in the number of new home sales transactions was expected, said Mr Mohan Sandrasegeran, head of research and data analytics at Singapore Realtors Inc.
“This slowdown is often attributed to the festive season and a general lack of new project launches during this time as potential buyers were likely preoccupied with holiday travel plans or personal commitments like weddings, diverting their attention away from property transactions,” he said.
Just 36 new units were launched for sale last month – the second-lowest number seen since URA began releasing monthly data on launches and sales in July 2007.
In 2023, developers sold about 6,450 new private homes, excluding ECs. This is a “significant” drop of 9.1 per cent from 2022, Ms Sun said.
According to Ms Sun, this is the lowest annual sales figure recorded since 2008, when 4,264 units were sold.
“Last year’s sales decline could be attributed to a combination of factors, including the property cooling measures in April 2023, (a) lack of project launches, macroeconomic uncertainty and interest rate hikes,” she said.