SINGAPORE – Condominium resale prices rose by 1.5 per cent in April after trending sideways for the past six months. This came as volumes reached a 13-month high.
Flash data from real estate portals SRX and 99.co released on May 27 showed that 1,122 condo units changed hands for the month, up from the 911 units resold in March.
Volumes were up 25.8 per cent year on year, and were 17.6 per cent higher than the five-year average volumes for the month of April.
Property analysts from real estate agencies Huttons, PropNex and Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI) observed an increase in foreign buyers during the month. This led to resale condo transactions in the core central region (CCR), or prime district, rising 23.3 per cent compared with March.
Transactions in the CCR made up 22.8 per cent of total resale volumes, although they were outpaced by the outside central region (OCR), or suburbs, at 45.4 per cent, and the rest of central region (RCR), or city fringe, which accounted for 31.8 per cent.
Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer of property firm ERA Singapore, observed that developers had put up multiple units for sale in The Residences at W Singapore Sentosa Cove and Cuscaden Reserve, which attracted buyers looking for undervalued resale properties.
For example, units for sale at The Residences at W Singapore Sentosa Cove were transacted at an average of $1,789 per sq ft, nearly 40 per cent lower than the launch price, he said.
Huttons Asia chief executive Mark Yip said ultra-high-net-worth individuals may be relocating to Singapore for its excellent business-friendly and living environment. The stable political landscape may be a key factor behind these individuals’ choice of Singapore as a safe place to live.
Citing caveat data, PropNex chief executive Ismail Gafoor noted, however, that in the first four months of 2024, 47 caveats were lodged for condo resale transactions by foreigners, down from 166 caveats in the first four months of 2023. Of the 47, 31 were from US buyers.
A caveat, lodged with the Singapore Land Authority, secures a property for the buyer.
Mr Gafoor expects home sales to still be driven mainly by Singaporeans and Singapore permanent residents in the near term.
Mr Mohan Sandrasegeran, head of research and data analytics at SRI, said: “One year after the implementation of a 60 per cent additional buyer’s stamp duty for foreigners, up from the previous rate of 30 per cent, there has been a noticeable stabilisation in the proportion of private units purchased by foreign buyers.”
Ms Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at property firm OrangeTee Group, believes new project launches could have also contributed to the growth in demand for resale condominiums.
“This is because the increased marketing activities have raised buyer awareness of private homes in the same area,” she said.
Furthermore, the firm prices of new private homes could have nudged potential buyers into considering older – and relatively cheaper – resale condos in the same area. This trend is more evident in areas with more new launches, she said.
Resale prices, meanwhile, inched up across all regions on the month. The RCR led gains with a 2 per cent rise, followed by the CCR, which was up 0.3 per cent. Prices in the OCR were up marginally by 0.1 per cent.
Year on year, resale prices were up 5.1 per cent. The OCR recorded the highest gain at 7.2 per cent, followed by the RCR, which climbed 5.2 per cent, and the CCR, which inched up 0.2 per cent.
Sub-sale transactions accounted for 9.2 per cent of all secondary sales, up 0.1 percentage point from March.
Sub-sale deals refer to secondary sales made before a project’s completion, while secondary-sale transactions comprise both resale and sub-sale transactions.
The most expensive condo resold in April was a $13 million unit at The Marq on Paterson Hill in River Valley.
In the RCR, the highest transacted price was $8.3 million for a unit at The Peak in Queenstown, and $5.36 million for a Windy Heights unit in Kembangan in the OCR.
The overall median capital gain for resale condos stood at $337,000, down $40,000 from the month before.
District 10 (Tanglin and Holland) posted the highest median capital gain at $763,000, while District 1 (Boat Quay, Raffles Place and Marina) recorded the lowest median capital gain at $2,000. THE BUSINESS TIMES
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...limb-15-in-april-as-volumes-hit-13-month-high
