2 culprits that caused February private home sales to collapse

Only 708 units were sold.

According to CIMB, URA reported that 708 new private homes (excluding executive condos or ECs) were sold in Feb, down 64% mom and 62% yoy.

An estimated 209 units were sold in the EC segment, accounting for 23% of total new home sales in Feb. Units in the outside central region (OCR) continued to make up the bulk of sales at 60% while sales contribution from projects in the core central region (CCR) increased mom to 22%.

Here's more from CIMB:

The top-selling projects of the month were D’Leedon, QBay Resi, The Topiary (EC), Interlace and 1 Canberra (EC).

The collapse in volume in Feb can be attributed to two factors 1) the traditional lull period during Chinese New Year which fell in Feb and 2) developers’ uncertainty over project launches after the new policy curbs were announced in Jan 2013.