Here’s why Singapore saw a surge of new residential project launches in Q3

Residential launches more than doubled QoQ to 1,284 units during the quarter.

According to a Savills report, following a slump in launched units in Q2/2024, the number of units launched rebounded in Q3/2024, more than doubling from 634 units to 1,284 units.

Nevertheless, it was still less than half of the 2,805 units launched in the same period a year ago. The QoQ surge in launched units mainly came from Rest of Central Region (RCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR).

Here’s more from Savills:

Launches in RCR almost doubled from 249 units in Q2/2024 to 468 units in Q3/2024, while that in OCR skyrocketed from 126 units in Q2/2024 to 782 units in the quarter. On the other hand, the number of launched units in Core Central Region (CCR) contracted 86.9% QoQ to a mere 34 units. As such, OCR constituted the largest proportion of launched units in the quarter, with 60.9%, followed by 36.4% in RCR and 2.6% in CCR.

Although there were fewer projects launched in the quarter (three compared to six in the previous quarter), each of these projects had more units. Additionally, projects such as Tembusu Grand, Pinetree Hill, and Hillhaven that were launched in previous quarters, had over 100 units released for sale in Q3/2024.

These two factors led to more units being launched in the quarter. In comparison to the six new launches in Q2/2024 (excluding Lentor Mansion with its take-up rate of 76.0%), the sales take-up of the new projects in Q3/2024 generally fared better, with two of the developments having over half of their units sold in the quarter of launch.

These included Kassia and 8@BT. Between these two projects, Kassia had a slightly higher take-up of 59.4%, with 164 of its 276 units sold in the quarter. During the first weekend of launch, the freehold development sold over 50% of the units. This will be the final project in the cluster of private condominiums within the Flora Drive-Flora Road enclave by joint venture Tripartite Developers, consisting of Hong Leong Holdings, City Developments and TID that spanned across three decades.

Developments in this enclave included Azalea Park, Ballota Park, Carissa Park, Dahlia Park, Edelweiss Park, Ferraria Park, The Gale, Hedges Park, The Inflora and The Jovell. Among the unit types within Kassia, the one- and two-bedroom units (including one-bedroom+study and twobedroom+study) were the most popular, selling 146 of these units in the quarter of launch. These accounted for bulk, or 89.0% of the units sold for Kassia in the quarter.

The relatively healthy take-up for the development may be due to the units being attractively priced, given its freehold tenure and well-connected to the Pan Island Expressway and East Coast Parkway. The one-bedroom units that were sold were largely below S$1 million, while the one-bedroom+study, two-bedroom and two-bedroom+study units were mainly transacted below S$1.5 million.

The other new project that saw over half of its units sold at launch in the quarter in review was 8@BT, located at Bukit Timah Link in the RCR. Around 81 of the total 158 units were sold, with an average price of S$2,731 psf. Close to 93.8% of the onebedroom units were sold in the quarter, which were priced between S$1.34 million and S$1.59 million (S$2,527 psf to S$3,033 psf).

Around 60.4%, or 29 of the two-bedroom units, priced from S$1.81 million to S$2.21 million (S$2,586 psf to S$3,014 psf), along with 42.6% of the three-bedroom units (20 units), priced between S$2.57 million and S$3.26 million (S$2,567 psf to S$2,846 psf) were also transacted in Q3/2024. The development is strategically located within walking distance to the Beauty World MRT station with renowned schools within proximity.

Strong sales were also observed for the neighbouring projects, such as the freehold development The Linq @ Beauty World being launched in November 2020 and all its 120 units were sold in December 2021 and The Reserve Residences being launched in May 2023 and 711 of the 732 units (97.1%) were sold as at end Q3/2024.