Singapore private residential sales more than doubled in January

1,609 units were sold during the month, 159.5% more than the 620 units sold in January 2020.

Since the pickup in sales in December, the momentum of primary sales in the private residential market continued unabated with 1,609 units (excluding Executive Condominiums (ECs)) sold during the month of January 2021. According to Knight Frank, this was 32.2% more than developer sales in December 2020 and 159.5% more than the 620 units sold by developers a year ago in January 2020, before COVID-19 came to Singapore. In the current climate, there appears to be no sign of buyer fatigue, with new launches having the ability to immediately capture the buying public’s attention with brisk sales immediately upon launch.

Normanton Park recorded 625 sales out of 1,862 units launched selling more than a third of the total number in the entire project, while The Reef at King’s Dock chalked up some 73.7% of sales translating to 221 transactions out of 300 units launched. Furthermore, the new launch of the EC Parc Central Residences accounted for 417 transactions out of 700 units, thereby bringing the total number of units sold (inclusive of ECs) to 2,098 units in the month of January.

Here’s more from Leonard Tay, Head, Research, Knight Frank Singapore:

As the new launches Normanton Park and The Reef at King’s Dock are in the Rest of the Central Region (RCR), the sale of new units in the region crossed into the four-digit range with a record-high of 1,108 units bought, since this data series became available. The last time units in the RCR surpassed a thousand was more than a decade ago in April 2010, when 1,044 new sale transactions were recorded. This was due to developers launching 2,202 units in the RCR in January 2021, taking advantage of the steady growing demand in the past few months.

Buyers were also attracted to a good mix of outdoor elements with urban design, such as The Reef at King’s Dock in the Greater Southern Waterfront, offering residents a central location with a waterfront lifestyle and amenities incorporating nature that would grow increasingly popular as working-from-home becomes increasingly accepted. As there were no new launches in the Core Central Region and Outside Central Region (OCR), private home sales in these regions were more subdued. However, the launch and lively sales of units at the EC Parc Central Residences does indicate that demand for homes in the OCR remains solid.

Even though data recently released by the Department of Statistics showed that the median household income fell by 2.4% in 2020 from a year ago, and that the 8th to the 10th decile in real change in average monthly household income from work per household member declined between 1.8% and 2.3% during the same period, demand for private residential homes as well as ECs, remains robust. There appears to be much liquidity among homebuyers.

HDB upgraders who have made decent profits from their Build-To-Order (BTO) units after five years of mandatory residence have been and are able to make the leap to mass market private homes. In addition, it could also be that older Singaporeans, such as the baby boomers, who have made substantial capital gains from their homes or from enbloc sales in the past are now able to channel some of these proceeds to their children, enabling a younger generation to also cross over into private properties. In 2021, while the secondary market is likely to record more sales than a year ago, the new sale market is also expected to be active with about 10,000 new sales.