It seems likely, that CapitaLand has halted sales in Singapore because they are looking to make more profits by raising the sale costs next year. CapitaLand confirmed they have halted sales on Marine Blue and Sky Habitat but have refused to comment any further.
According to property agents, the developer had put on hold the units for sale on Sky Habitat and a week earlier did the same with Marine Blue. It seems a little odd that Sky Habitat has 509 units but 99 are left unsold and Marine Blue which has 124 units have 53 unsold.
It also seems that the developer has stopped further moves on their next phase of several projects that were slated for this year. Developers such as Lendlease and Qingjian Realty stated they did this because they are predicting the market will improve next year. After the first phase of Park Place Residences was launched in March, the developer decided not to offer these units for sale.
When confronted about launching the remaining units at a higher price tag, the company stated they believed there is a lot of potential for long-term asset appreciation which is very appealing to them. They believe by holding off and launching these properties next year will give more value to these properties like that of Park Place Residences.
In similar cases, since the launching of Le Quest 2 months ago in August, Qingjian Realty has not sold so much as one unit. Their only comment was, they will provide more details in the Le Quest’s phase 2 and that will be announced at a later date.
Again, Martin Modern was initially launched in July but in August, renowned developer, Guocoland announced they would reduce the number of units released for sales. The CEO of International Property Advisor, Mr Ku Swee Yong, believes that developers will often place a halt sales or reduce the number of units for sale because they are looking for raising prices and will only launch the units when the market recovers.
He continued to say that he believes developes are also adopting a strategy to improve their cash flow for the future. The developers may not be able to restore their land bank through the GLS (Government Land Sales) and are therefore waiting for some event such as added resources to become available before any new launches.
Head of Research and Consultanacy at Jones Lang LaSalle, Tay Huey Ying, has cautioned developers being too confident in their approaches even though these developers are very optimistic about the market next year.
Ms. Ying went on to point out that even if sales volume is returning, buyers are still very leery and cautious of the increase in sales prices. She believes that developers need to realize that the price of homes, at best, will only increase moderately over the next year.
Knowing when these properties will actually be available for sale, will probably have to wait until next year and see what the market will do.
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