Developer sales plunged 60% to 639 units in February from January’s 1,609 units, on the back of the Chinese New Year celebrations and the lack of new launches.
Developer sales plunged 60% to 639 units in February from January’s 1,609 units, on the back of the Chinese New Year celebrations and the lack of new launches, reported The Business Times (BT).
In January, one new project alone – the 1,862-unit Normanton Park – shifted 625 units.
“Unsurprisingly, we saw a drop in the sales of new private homes in February, mainly due to the Lunar New Year festivities and a dearth of new project launches during the month,” noted Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex, as quoted by BT.
Based on URA Realis data, developers moved 639 new homes, excluding executive condos, down 60.2% from the 1,609 units sold in January, he shared.
On an annual basis, new home sales fell 34.5% from the 976 units moved in February 2020.
The monthly sales data will be released by URA on 15 March.
OrangeTee & Tie’s Senior Vice-President of Research & Analytics Christine Sun attributed the lower sales to the property market turning “more cautious in February as developers held back launches and the pace of sales slowed over the Chinese New Year period”.
“Both consumers and developers seemed to have taken heed of the government’s advice to exercise greater prudence in light of the current macroeconomic uncertainties,” she said as quoted by BT.
She added that buyers may have also waited for new policy announcements from the government during the Budget debate.
And while the month-on-month and year-on-year drop in sales may seem substantial, Ismail believes that it may not be an entirely fair comparison.
New home sales in January 2021 were boosted by new launches Normanton Park as well as The Reef At King’s Dock, while in February last year, The M in Middle Road registered overwhelming demand at launch, he said.
“But if you consider February 2021, there weren’t any new projects put on the market. In addition, many of the mega projects such as Treasure At Tampines, Parc Clematis, and Jadescape, have been consistently paring down their unsold units and they will likely have less impact on lifting new home sales figures,” he said.
Overall, Ismail does not believe that February’s lower sales indicated a slowdown in the primary market.
“Instead, it shows that new home sales are highly supply-led, with new projects stimulating demand and spurring transactions during the month of launch. Hence, with some new projects lined up – including Midtown Modern and The Atelier – we should expect the numbers to pick up in March.”
Meanwhile, some well-heeled buyers were seen spending serious money in the city fringe area, which is officially known as the Rest of Central Region (RCR), particularly the Katong area.
Sun noted that Katong is an area famous for its rich Peranakan history and culture heritage.
In February, 11 homes priced within the $5 million and $10 million brackets were sold, up from January’s four units.
Of these, five were situated in the Core Central Region (CCR), four – two in Amber Park and two in Meyer House – were in the RCR, while the remaining two were in the Outside Central Region (OCR).
The two OCR units were landed homes in Cashew Green.
A 308 sq m unit in Meyer House emerged as the most expensive home to be sold in February at $8.2 million.
Sun said more expensive non-landed homes in the RCR are becoming popular. In fact, 20 RCR homes priced at over $5 million were shifted in 2019. This dropped to 12 last year. So far this year, four such units have been sold.
Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this story, email: victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
