Singapore new home sales hit a record 2,557 units in November

Thanks to five new residential projects launched during the month.

In a recent report, Knight Frank said that on the back of encouraging sales in October when 738 units were sold, mostly from Norwood Grand and Meyer Blue, there were 2,557 new sales (excluding executive condominiums (ECs)) and 2,891 new sales (inclusive of ECs) in November.

“This is and will be the highest monthly volume in all of 2024 driven by the five new residential launches of Chuan Park (721 sales), Emerald Of Katong (840 sales), Nava Grove (382 sales), The Collective at One Sophia  (62 sales) and Union Square Residences (101 sales) and one EC, Novo Place (289 sales) that combined to make up 82.8% of all developer sales during the month,” the report said.

Here’s more from Knight Frank:

This is the highest monthly sale since March 2013, more than 11 years ago. Adding the quarterly primary sales data from URA from January to September 2024 with October and November monthly developer sales, a total of 6,344 units have been sold in the 11 months of 2024.

In effect, there were more sales in October and November alone from 3,295 units than in the preceding nine months of the year with 3,049 units. Singaporean homebuyers had spent much of the year watching and waiting in a market that was tepid without much activity, and then coming out to buy in October and November.

The burst of homebuyer activity in November with six new launches and the near sell out of Emerald of Katong, changed the mood. As interest rates started to fall with the US Federal Reserve announcing a 50-basis point cut in September followed by a 25-basis point reduction in November and another 25-basis point cut expected in December, homebuyers returned in force in November 2024.

Pent-up demand accumulated during the course of a year that was characterised by fewer new launches, elevated interest rates, economic uncertainty and geo-political tensions. However, with household net worth in Singapore remaining strong amid low unemployment, homebuyers have decided to get off the fence and plunge back into the new sale market. This explosive of demand for new product will not be repeated in a December that has few prominent launches, and with many Singaporeans away for holidays. The question now is whether this demand remains sustainable into the new year after the festive period is over.

Factors that fuel and will continue to drive demand for private homes stem from healthy household balance sheets, the evergreen housing aspirations of Singaporean families and where new family formations can be the beneficiaries of inter-generational wealth made and passed down by baby-boomers and Generation X that have enjoyed property gains as Singapore progressed from a developing nation to a developed one.

With the tight supply and lack of options due to the pandemic fresh in the memories of many, Singaporean homebuyers rushed into the narrowed two-month gap where an array of locations and options became available. Some were perhaps even motivated that fears of further future cooling measures or that prices will again quickly move upwards.

However in 2025, the world is likely to become more volatile before clarity emerges from the clouds of uncertainty.  Geo-political tensions are not going away and have arguably increased as the year draws to a close, especially with greater uncertainty in the Middle-East and the current impasse in Ukraine. 

A second Trump presidency with warning shots of more tariffs and protectionist policies might affect businesses all over the world, affecting the flow of trade and the global economy. Should these combine to affect Singapore’s improving economy and the job market, homebuying demand might revert back to the sidelines as it did for much of 2024.