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    QONEQT in News

    15-Sep-2022 09:55 AM


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    New private home sales fall 47.6% in August amid lack of launches during Hungry Ghost month

    SINGAPORE: New private home sales in Singapore fell 47.6 per cent in August from a month earlier due to the lack of launches during the Hungry Ghost month.

    Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers sold 437 units last month, down from 834 units in July, according to figures released on Thursday (Sep 15) by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

    The last time monthly sales were lower was in April 2020 - when the COVID-19 "circuit breaker" period had just started - when 277 new homes were sold.

    On a year-on-year basis, home sales in August fell 64.1 per cent from the 1,216 units sold in the same period last year.

    No new condominium projects were launched last month.

    However, two landed projects were launched - The Jardine Residences (six units) along Lorong Chuan and Mount Rosie Signature Collection (six units) near the Bukit Timah area.

    "The Lunar Seventh Month, which straddled almost the whole month of August, resulted in developers deferring the launch of new projects," noted Mr Lee Sze Teck, Huttons Asia's senior director for research.

    "The number of units launched for sale fell by 66.7 per cent month-on-month to 134. This is the lowest number of units launched for sale since September 2017."

    The Core Central Region (CCR) saw the most number of units sold at 220, followed by the Rest of Central Region (RCR) at 127 units and the Outside Central Region (OCR) at 90 units.

    This is the first time that units in CCR have exceeded 50 per cent of monthly sales, noted Mr Lee.

    "Buyers are shifting their focus to the CCR as the median price per sq ft between the CCR and RCR has narrowed to 14.9 per cent in August 2022 compared to 41.6 per cent in January 2022," he added.

    Mr Mohan Sandrasegeran, senior analyst for research and content creation at One Global Property Services, added that the increase in sales in the CCR was likely due to the lack of new projects launched in the area, "leading to buyers and investors scraping the barrel for a limited pool of private homes".
    Source: CNA