Singapore’s 50% drop in private home launches in May just a temporary setback: JLL

New private home launches fell from 1,038 units in April to just 514 units in May. 

The 50% drop in launches and 30% drop in new private home sales in May is only a temporary setback, according to JLL. Fundamentals have not changed, as buyers are still positive about the market and developers plan to release more units for sale to capitalize on the healthy demand.

“Launches and sales volume may be expected to improve as heightened alert measures were relaxed from 14 June 2021. The successful containment of the COVID-19 infection spread and the progress in the vaccination programme would also give more confidence to buyers and sellers in resuming transactional activity,” says Ong Teck Hui, Senior Director of Research & Consultancy at JLL.

According to JLL, the Executive Condominium (EC) market saw the launch of Provence Residence at the median price of SGD 1,155 psf, selling 229 units or 55% of the total of 413 units. EC is an assured market for developers with keen demand from buyers who meet qualifying criteria. The monthly median prices of new ECs have been consistently above $1,100 psf since February 2020.

Here’s JLL’s summary of the launches and sales:

514 new private homes were launched for sale in May 2021, which was 50.5% lower than the 1,038 units placed on the market in April 2021 and 16.4% lower y-o-y. 

There were two projects placed on the market last month, namely the 351-unit One Bernam and the 54-unit Park Nova (See Table A below).

The bulk of the units launched for sale last month was from newly launched One Bernam (100 units) and Park Nova (54 units) as well as previously launched Midwood (80 units), The Jovell (50 units) and One Pearl Bank (50 units), which accounted for around 65% of the total launched. 

Developers sold 891 private homes in May 2021, 29.7% less than the 1,268 units sold in April 2021, but almost doubled the sales volume in May 2020 when the Circuit Breaker measures were in effect.

Last month's take-up was led by projects in the suburbs or Outside Central Region (OCR) with 401 units sold, followed by 299 units taken up in the city fringes i.e. Rest of Central Region (RCR) and 191 units sold in the prime Core Central Region (CCR).

The top selling projects during the month are listed in Table B below.