Why Singapore’s new home sales significantly slowed in March

Find out which projects drove this performance.

According to Wong Siew Ying, Head of Research & Content at PropNex Realty, the slower new home sales (ex. EC) in March were mainly a result of the lack of mega projects being launched during the month.

Collectively, the Aurea and Lentor Central Residences offer a total of 665 units, compared with nearly 1,700 units at Parktown Residence and ELTA which were launched in February.

“Lentor Central Residences drove sales during the month when it sold 96% of its units following its launch on 8 March. This took developers’ sales in the mass market or OCR in Q1 2025 to 2,256 new homes (ex. EC), which is the highest quarterly tally in about 12 years, since 2,760 OCR units were transacted in Q2 2013,” Wong added.

Here’s more from PropNex:

Meanwhile, ECs continue to be a hot favourite among eligible buyers, as reflected by the robust sales at Aurelle of Tampines. It also set a new benchmark transacted price for new ECs, as the average unit price hit $1,766 psf during its launch. Still, this represents a lower entry price than other new private condos, and we expect demand for new ECs to stay relatively resilient as it is largely driven by owner-occupiers.

Following the strong upturn in buyer sentiment in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, market uncertainties have heightened considerably in early-April, as the US imposed sweeping tariffs on its trading partners, prompting a retaliation from China. Since then, the overall situation remains fluid and we expect global trade tensions will continue to sway market sentiment. 

As the property market is sentiment-driven, the downside risks and uncertainties brought about by the tariffs may influence home buying decisions, particularly among investors. Meanwhile, we anticipate demand from end-users purchasing a home for own stay could be more stable as they are in it for the long haul.

Despite the heightened caution and market turmoil in recent weeks, sales and take up rates at the two new launches in April – Bloomsbury Residences (25% take-up) and One Marina Gardens (38% take-up) – are quite positive in our view, and reflect a certain level of resilience in the private housing demand.  

Being the first projects to hit new housing precincts in Media Circle and Marina South, we expect transactions to pick up progressively as prospective buyers parse the evolving tariff situation. Boosted by Bloomsbury Residences and One Marina Gardens, we project April’s developers’ sales to likely trend at around March’s level.