SINGAPORE: Sales of new private homes fell 22.5% last month, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday (March 15).
Excluding executive apartments (EC), developers sold 527 units in February, down from 680 units in January.
Most of these were in the Rest of Central Region (RCR), with 266 units sold. The Outside Central Region (OCR) saw 160 sales and the Core Central Region (CCR) saw 101 sales.
Ms Christine Sun, senior vice president of research and analysis at OrangeTee & Tie, noted that new sales excluding EC were down 18.3% year-on-year compared to the 645 units in February last year.
“The private housing market is reeling from a triple whammy of cooling measures, falling housing supply and global uncertainty from the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Ms Sun said.
She also pointed to other challenges for homebuyers, such as rising interest rates, a property tax hike next year and fewer housing options as fewer projects launch this year.
Developers launched 194 units in February, a slight increase from the 178 units launched the previous month.
Of these, 167 were launched in the RCR and the rest in the CCR.
“February is usually a slow month for developers, as (Chinese New Year) tends to drop off this month,” said Lee Sze Teck, senior research director at Huttons Asia.
Noting that February was the second month with fewer than 200 launches, Mr Li said last month was the third-lowest February since URA began providing data.
He added: “Royal Hallmark, the sole launch in February, has done quite well – almost a third of its units have been sold against the backdrop of cooling measures in December 2021 and some uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine. “
“A positive conclusion from February’s sales is that the proportion of transactions of S$2 million and above … remained at the same level before the cooling measures,” Mr Lee said.
“This means affordability remains intact as market liquidity remains ample despite the cooling measures.”
Mr Mohan Sandrasegeran, research and content analyst at Ohmyhome, said market sentiment in the private new sales market was likely to “remain positive in the months ahead”.
“We expect new sales in the first quarter of 2022 to be between 2,000 and 2,300 units,” he said.
OrangeTee & Tie’s Ms Sun said demand for safe-haven buying could recover as “war tensions continue to escalate”.
“The looming uncertainty could instead benefit our housing market as investors turn their attention to defensive asset classes like real estate,” she said.
