Private home sales hit 4-year high in 2017

Home sales in Singapore surged to 10,682 units for the whole of 2017.

Private home sales in Singapore surged 34 percent to 10,682 units for the whole of 2017 compared to 7,972 units during the previous year, according to initial estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

As a result, take-up of private homes for the entire year reached its highest level since the 14,948 units sold in 2013, indicating that the city-state’s private property market is on the road to recovery.

“New private home sales in 2017 are the strongest in four years. This reflects the upbeat demand that is supporting recovery in the residential market that has also led to prices turning around since mid-2017,” said Ong Teck Hui, JLL’s national director of research and consultancy.

Meanwhile, sales of executive condominiums last year remained stable with 4,025 new units finding buyers versus the 3,999 ECs moved in 2016.

In particular, Qingjian Realty set the record for selling the most number of units last year, moving a total of 1,216 ECs and private homes. This is followed by Frasers Centrepoint (1,145 units), City Developments Limited (1,057 units), Hoi Hup Realty (845 units) and MCC Land (835 units).

The top-selling projects in 2017 include CEL Development’s Grandeur Park Residences with 607 units sold. This is followed by EL Development’s Parc Riviera (605 units), Frasers Centrepoint’s Seaside Residences (564 units), Hoi Hup Realty’s Hundred Palms Residences (531 units) and Qingjian Realty’s iNz Residence (480 units).

“The encouraging sales volume and the pickup in home prices in the second half of 2017 signalled that the private residential market has turned a corner and should continue to recover this year,” noted Tricia Song, Colliers International’s research head for Singapore.

“We estimate that about 25 major private non-landed projects with the potential to yield 15,000 to 16,000 units (excluding ECs) could be put on the market in 2018. We expect home prices to climb by five percent this year, barring any unforeseen events,” she added.

On the other hand, JLL’s Ong reckons that between 9,000 and 10,000 private units could be launched this year, in addition to around 2,000 remaining units in previously launched projects.

 

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg