Private home sales surged in rush to beat curbs

Private home sales surged 42.8 per cent in January from the month before, as developers dished out discounts and rebates to entice buyers in the wake of the seventh round of cooling measures.

Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), a total of 2,013 transactions were clocked in in January, up from 1,410 in December. This was the highest in four months, and exceeded the 1,799 units launched by developers.


Buyers who rushed to lock in their purchases before the cooling measures on Jan 11 - which included higher additional buyers' stamp duty (ABSD) as well as stricter borrowing limits - kicked in, helped drive sales.

EL Development's La Fiesta, one of many showflats that stayed open late, saw snaking queues on Jan 11, as potential buyers tried to beat the midnight deadline. The project, located in Sengkang, recorded 404 transactions in January.

"(EL Development) had earlier shared that it had sold 360 units in the project before Jan 12. . . So by deduction, it probably sold about 44 units after Jan 12," said a market watcher.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), about 60 per cent of the units (excluding ECs) sold by developers were sold before Jan 12 while the remaining 40 per cent were sold from Jan 12.

January's sales were also buoyed by attractive incentives offered by developers. Q Bay Residences (372 sales), for instance, offered stamp duty discounts of 5 per cent to 7 per cent, while D'Leedon Residences (263 sales) offered discounts of up to 15 per cent. Of this, 163 units at D'Leedon were moved from Jan 12.

Mass-market suburban regions (Outside Central Region) contributed 63.9 per cent of total sales (1,287 transactions), a marked increase compared to the 44 per cent recorded a month earlier. The Core Central Region and Rest of Central region made up 17.4 per cent (350 sales) and 18.7 per cent (376 sales) of January sales, respectively.

Sales of EC units dropped 69.8 per cent to 256 units. Including ECs, a total of 2,269 residential units were sold in January, on a par with the 2,259 units sold a month ago.

Consultants expect slower sales in February, in the light of the usually quiet Chinese New Year, even though a handful of developers had opened their showflats over the festive season.

Source: Business Times –16 February 2013