Private project launches up 23.1% in Q2

Eight projects came from the Rest of Central Region.

Developers did not slow down their launches in the second quarter, with 16 new private residential projects rolled out for sale to the public. This represents an increase of 23.1% from the 13 projects recorded in the previous quarter, Savills Singapore revealed.

It is also one of the highest quarterly numbers since Q4 2013. Amongst these projects, eight are located in the Rest of Central Region (RCR), followed by four each in the Core Central Region (CCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR), respectively.

However, mostly due to the lack of large-scale projects, Q2’s 16 newly launched developments released a total of only 1,417 uncompleted private residential units for sale, down 2.9% from the 1,459 units in 13 projects a quarter ago.

“In addition, given economic uncertainty and ample competitors in the market, a majority of developers have carefully paced their launches so as to test not only market acceptance to the benchmark prices set by their respective projects but also potential buyers’ purchasing power,” said Alan Cheong, executive director for research at Savills Singapore.

Together with another 1,085 units from previously launched projects, developers in total released 2,502 uncompleted private homes in Q2/2019. This was 16.3% lower than a quarter ago, but still 2.7% higher compared with the same period in 2018.

Based on the number of launched units, the top five projects in Q2/2019 were Parc Komo at Upper Changi Road North, The Woodleigh Residences at Bidadari Park Avenue, Sky Everton at Everton Road, Amber Park at Amber Gardens and Stirling Residences at Stirling Road.

In contrast to the decline seen in the launch of uncompleted private residential properties island-wide, new home sales overall in the April-June quarter rose 27.9% QoQ to 2,350 units. The best-selling projects in the primary market include: Treasure At Tampines, Amber Park, The Florence Residences, The Tre Ver and Sky Everton.

Regardless of the relatively high prices set by these projects in the vicinity, the freehold tenure could be the main attribute enticing buyers, Cheong noted. “In the meantime, a few previously launched projects recorded higher sales volume in Q2 compared to a quarter ago. Notably, the average Q2 selling prices for some of these projects strengthened from a quarter ago. Therefore, setting aside developers’ proactive marketing efforts, the growth in transactions pointed to improving buying sentiment despite a backdrop of global and local uncertainty,” he said.

Secondary market results
During the quarter under review, the secondary market also showed encouraging results with 2,416 private residential units changing hands. After three consecutive quarters of decline beginning in Q3 2018, sales volume was notably 26.8% higher than the 1,905 recorded in the previous quarter.

By location, the RCR enjoyed the highest uptick of 32.1% QoQ, followed by 25.8% QoQ in the OCR and 22.9% QoQ in the CCR. Buying activity in the high-end market segment revived over the last few months. A total of 137 non-landed private homes with a unit price of at least $3,000 psf found buyers in the second quarter of 2019.

This marked the highest sales number since Q4 2007, Cheong noted. “With cooling measures still in place, the active sales in this segment, in particular those super luxury units worth at least $10meach, surprised the market to some extent,” he said.

In addition, the highest unit price rose to $5,125 psf, which was achieved by a penthouse at the freehold Boulevard 88 in June. “The resurgence in purchases of Singapore luxury homes could be linked to the recent political unrest in Hong Kong as well as ongoing US-China trade tensions,” he added.