SINGAPORE: New private home sales in Singapore more than doubled in September from a month earlier, driven by the launches of Lentor Modern and Sky Eden@Bedok.
Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers sold 987 units last month, up from the revised 438 units in August, according to figures released on Monday (Oct 17) by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
This is the highest number of sales since May, when developers sold 1,355 units excluding ECs.
Ms Christine Sun, OrangeTee and Tie’s senior vice president of research and analytics, said: “New home sales in September climbed to the second-highest level this year on pent-up demand for suburban homes.”
On a year-on-year basis, home sales in September rose 18.3 per cent from the 834 units sold in the same month last year.
Sales in September were boosted by the launch of two suburban projects: Lentor Modern, which sold 512 units, and Sky Eden@Bedok, which sold 121 units.
Ms Sun called the sales figures at Lentor Modern and Sky Eden@Bedok “astounding”.
“Although their median launch prices were above S$2,100 psf, both projects sold well, moving 84.6 per cent or 512 units at Lentor Modern and 76.6 per cent or 121 units at Sky Eden@Bedok within a month,” she said.
“The sales performance of both projects was astounding, considering their price points, interest rate hikes and growing uncertainties on the macroeconomic front.”
Ms Sun added that demand remains strong due to a lack of home supply in the suburbs and because Housing Board (HDB) upgraders who sold their flats in recent months need replacement homes.
Huttons Asia’s senior director for research Lee Sze Teck said that the number of units launched in September jumped 6.8 times compared to the 134 units launched in August.
“Despite the higher volume of units launched for sale, monthly sales have once again exceeded the launch units, reflecting the strong demand for private homes,” Mr Lee said.
“This is the 13th month that sales have exceeded units launched for sale.”
The Outside Central Region (OCR) saw the most number of units sold at 686, followed by the Core Central Region (CCR) at 198 units and the Rest of Central Region (RCR) at 103 units.
Mr Mohan Sandrasegeran, senior analyst for research and content creation at One Global Property Services, noted the surge in OCR sales compared to last month’s figures.
“Among all the market segments, OCR had the highest growth in the number of new home sales in September. The number of units sold in OCR increased from a mere 90 units in August to an astounding 686 units in September,” he said.
“There have been few significant new non-landed condo launches in the OCR segment aside from Amo Residence in July. As a result, interest from pent-up demand fuelled longing buyers and investors who were probably chomping at the bit.”
Mr Mohan added that buyers and investors are “starting to embrace the new benchmark price points since the availability of new launches in OCR has been dwindling”.
“They are becoming acclimatised to the fact that projects in the OCR would typically have a price point of S$2,000 per square foot or more moving forward,” he said.
The proportion of purchases made by foreigners dipped to 4.8 per cent in September, compared to 12.7 per cent a month earlier, according to URA and Huttons Research.
“As almost 70 per cent of the sales in September were in the OCR, foreigners made up a smaller share of the overall sales,” Mr Lee said.