How a single project launch bucked the trend in Singapore’s residential market

8@BT’s sales proved that there are keen buyers despite the current quiet market conditions.

According to Leonard Tay, Head of Research at Knight Frank Singapore, the highlight of the month of September was the sole launch of 8@BT, which defied the prevailing mood in the private residential market to achieve a reported median price of S$2,727 psf for the 83 units (or about 53%) sold during the month when the project was launched on the weekend of 21 September.

While this contributed to what might seem like a very substantial 90% month-on-month increase to 401 new sales (excluding executive condominiums (ECs)) in September, the gain compared to a month ago was due to the very underwhelming 211 developer sales in August. 

“Nevertheless, 8@BT’s sales performance provided underlying evidence that despite the current quiet market conditions, there are buyers with the means as well as the hunger to pull the trigger on a purchase. This was further validated by the launch of Meyer Blue in early October, a freehold project in District 15 that was also reported to have sold slightly above 50% (114 out of 226) of its total number of units,” Tay added.

Here’s more from Knight Frank:

In the first nine months of the year, there was an estimated total of 3,077 primary home transactions (combining the official URA new sales in Q1 and Q2 2024 with the monthly developer sales data from July to September 2024). Compared with the same period a year ago, new sales in 2024 is 42% less than the 5,329 primary sales in the first nine months of 2023. Homebuyers looking for new homes remained cautious and would only purchase a new home that checked off most of the boxes in their lifestyle list. Otherwise, the majority of buyers continued to sit on the fence held back by high interest rates.

So the announcement of a 50-basis point interest rate cut in September 2024 by the US central bank could prove to be the shot-in-the-arm needed to move the private residential market. Notwithstanding that the effects of the interest rate cut are not likely to be dramatically immediate, but will mostly be felt from next year onwards, this might just be the impetus to tip homebuyers who are presently sitting on the fence into a purchase, especially those buying for their own occupation.

Several new projects could be launched before the end of the year, that could include Chuan Park at Lorong Chuan, Norwood Grand in Woodlands, The Collective at One Sophia and Union Square at Havelock Road.  

Although the mood has been tentative and selective among homebuyers for most of 2024, transaction momentum of new sales could pick up before the holiday season at the end of year to fall at the lower end of Knight Frank’s expectations of between 4,000 and 6,000 units. Even so, 2024 will likely have the poorest showing since 2008 (4,264 new sales) during the Global Financial Crisis.