Slow weekend for sales at showflats

Slow weekend for sales at showflats over the weekend as home-seekers adopted a wait-and-see approach in the wake of the new cooling measures.

A combination of Chinese New Year distractions and the possibility that some developers might start throwing in discounts meant sales are being put on hold.


Q Bay - the joint development by Frasers Centrepoint, Far East Organization and Sekisui House - at Tampines sold just 10 units at the weekend, bringing the total to 382 out of 630 units.

Prices for some units have been increased by 1 per cent to 2 per cent over the weekend, depending on their outlook and size, said a Frasers Centrepoint spokesman.

The average price of $985 per sq ft (psf) at the preview launch two weeks ago has risen to about $1,000 psf. However no additional incentives have been rolled out on top of the 5 per cent to 7 per cent discount already offered to mitigate the new additional buyer's stamp duty.

Weekend sales were also slow at La Fiesta, which sold just seven units, mostly two-bedders, although all its one-bedroom units have been taken, said Mr Lim Yew Soon, managing director of developer EL Development.

The project has sold 405 out of 810 units at an average price of $1,150 per sq ft since the Jan 11 preview launch.

CapitaLand bucked the mediocre sales trend, thanks to new and existing discounts at its Interlace and d'Leedon projects.

Discounts of up to 15 per cent were offered for the 1,715-unit d'Leedon last week. At The Interlace, an additional cut of 10 per cent was dangled on the weekend in addition to a 10 per cent discount offered previously. The incentives helped The Interlace move 15 units while d'Leedon sold a robust 47 units on the weekend.

Source: The Straits Times –5 February 2013