Before the new cooling measures came in, it seemed to be an unspoken fact that the prices of private homes were about to increase, no one ever thought that the difference from one month to the other would be so significant.
From April of 2018 and until May of 2018, the prices of private homes increased with 53%. Besides this, the number of homes released in May was also higher than the ones made available in April. In April homebuyers bought a total of 664 new units, May came with 1,060 more, which means that the increased in the number of new units from one month to the other was of 59.6%. Also, in comparison with the last year, the number of units increased almost three times, considering that in April 2017, only 370 units were launched.
All these numbers were released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, on the 18th of June. This was one of the most significant increases, from all points of view, since the August of 2017, when developers managed to sell an impressive number of 1,246 units. If we are to look one year back, in May 2017, when 1,039 units were sold, it is easy to notice that this year the increase was of 7.9% in the same month. Besides this, homebuyers had a wider array of units to choose from, considering that this May the developers exceeded their expectancies by launching a much higher number of units on the market. Thus, this may have driven the desire of people to buy since the chances for them to find a suitable unit was much higher last month.
To sum up, what has happened in the past five months of 2018, regarding the market of private homes, developers managed to sell 3,480 units until now. This number excludes executive condominiums. But, in spite of the generous launches, this number is much lower than what was recorded in the same period of 2017. To be more precise, 39.4% lower, as in 2017, a total of 5,747 units found their owners. This may also be due to the fact that things slowed down a little since the beginning of 2018, as developers offered just 2,792 units until this May, in comparison with the impressive 4,171 units launched until May 2017.
When it comes to executive condominiums, which are an interesting entwining between public and private houses, things weren’t that brighter either. According to the details provided by the URA, there were only 136 EC units moved in May, which is almost a quarter lower than what developers managed to move last month, and that is 596 units. It is even lower than what they moved in May 2017 and that is a number of 377 units. Concerning new launch EC units, there were none launched in the past month.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/new-private-home-sales-jump-531-in-may-from-april
Latest Update:
With the revised stamp duty rates and borrowing limit, developers will have to readjust their pricing and marketing strategy. Below are some new launch condos, that are attractive and are still selling well due the their locations and prices.
