Sales of new private homes in Singapore rose for a third consecutive month in March, with property analysts predicting that demand will likely remain “robust”.
Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers sold 492 units in March – a 13.6 percent increase from the 433 units sold in February, according to figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday (Apr 17).
On a year-on-year basis, however, private home sales fell by 24.8 percent from the 654 units sold in the same period last year.
A total of 573 units were launched for sale, about 43 percent higher than in February.
Sales in March were mainly driven by the launch of The Botany at Dairy Farm in the Outside Central Region (OCR). A total of 184 units at the project were sold at a median price of S$2,068 psf.
“This is indicative of stable genuine demand for new mass-market homes amid tight unsold inventory in the OCR,” said Ms Tricia Song, CBRE’s head of research, Southeast Asia.
Huttons Asia’s senior director for research Lee Sze Teck noted that the one- and two-bedroom units at The Botany at Diary Farm were “almost sold out”.
“Investors zoomed in on the one-bedroom units probably for the rental demand from the German European School next door. Due to changing demographics to a smaller family nucleus, many buyers went for the two-bedroom units,” he added.
The bulk of last month’s transactions came from the OCR (46.7 percent), followed by the Core Central Region (40 percent) and the Rest of Central Region (13.2 percent)
