Which market segment boosted Singapore’s robust new home sales in March?

One segment recorded its strongest monthly performance since Sept 2022.

New private home sales in Singapore hit 718 units in March 2024, a 45.9% increase from the 492 units sold in the same period last year. This brings 1Q24 new private home sales to 1,175 units, a 6.4% y-o-y decline from 1,256 units sold in 1Q23. 

Here’s more from JLL:

March’s new home sales was powered by the Outside Central Region (OCR), which rose by 10.4 times month-on-month (m-o-m) to 605 units in the month. Sales from the fresh project launches of Lentor Mansion and Lentoria collectively accounted for 469 units or 77.5% of the total new sales in the OCR and 65.3% of overall new private home sales in March. This is the strongest monthly performance in the OCR since September 2022, when 686 new homes were transacted.

Sales in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) increased by 8.2% m-o-m to 66 units, accounting for 9.2% of total developers' sales. Sales at ongoing projects like The Continuum, Grand Dunman, and Pinetree Hill contributed to March’s sales, but the tally fell significantly below the 5-year March average of 278 units. New sale numbers in the RCR remained subdued due to the absence of compelling major project launches since July 2023. In March, the newly launched 35-unit Ardor Residence sold just one unit and the 17-unit Koon Seng House managed to move two units.

New sales in the Core Central Region (CCR) continued to improve for the third month in a row, with a 38.2% m-o-m increase from 34 units in February to 47 units in March. Since the introduction of Watten House in November 2023, there have been no new projects launched in the CCR. The top-selling CCR projects in the month were Watten House which sold 12 units at a median price of $3,255 psf and 19 Nassim which sold 11 units at a median price of $3,304 psf.

In 1Q24, the OCR came out tops with 829 new sales, representing a quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) increase of 28.7% and the highest quarterly tally for the market segment since 3Q22. Local buyers including public flat upgraders as well as mass-market suburban project launches continued to drive new sales. The RCR chalked up 240 new sales in 1Q24, slightly above the 233 units sold in previous quarter.

New private home sales in the CCR fell 50.7% q-o-q to 106 deals, the lowest quarterly sales seen since 4Q18, when just 89 new home sale deals were recorded following the implementation of the July 2018 market cooling measures. The lack of major project launches amid market cooling measures, market uncertainties and still-high interest rates led to subdued new home sales in the RCR and CCR in 1Q24.