Singapore New Private Residential Sales Monthly Report – March 2022

With more buyers returning to the market after the Lunar New Year holidays in February, and as Singapore simplified and eased COVID-19 measures this month, new private home sales rebounded in March 2022. However, the absence of major new launches in the market continued to weigh on new private home sales.

Developers sold 654 new private homes (excluding Executive Condominiums, ECs) in March 2022, a 20.7% increase from the 542 units transacted in the previous month. Compared to the same period last year, last month’s sales were down by a significant 49.5% from the high base of 1,296 units sold in March 2021, when the launch of Midtown Modern helped to prop up sales.

The Rest of Central Region (RCR) led private home sales in March, accounting for 49% of the total monthly sales, or 320 units. Private residential projects that stimulated transaction volume in the RCR market include Normanton Park, One Pearl Bank, Avenue South Residence, Verticus, and Amber Park. Normanton Park retained its top spot as the most popular private residential project, with 83 units changing hands in March at a median price of S$1,887 per square foot.

Meanwhile, new private home sales in the Outside Central Region (OCR) mass market picked up, with 181 units sold in March, an 11% increase from February’s sales. The rapidly depleting inventory of unsold units seems to continue limiting OCR sales, as potential buyers have increasingly limited options. The best-selling OCR projects in March were The Florence Residences, which sold 44 units at a median price of S$1,701 per square foot, and Ki Residences at Brookvale, which sold 28 units at a median price of S$1,976 per square foot.

In the Core Central Region (CCR), developers sold 153 new private homes last month, a 39.1% increase from the 110 units sold in February. Leedon Green and The Avenir were the best-selling projects in March, each selling 23 units at median prices of S$2,844 per square foot and S$3,099 per square foot, respectively.

Given the increased uncertainty exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has added pressure on the cost of living in Singapore, the slight increase in new private home sales in March, despite the absence of new launches, is still encouraging.

According to caveat records, Singaporean buyers accounted for 82.8% of new private homes sold (excluding ECs) in March, up from about
80.2% in the previous month. Foreign buyers accounted for 4.1% of new private home transactions in March, down from 5.3% in February (see Table 1).

In the absence of any new project launches, buyers turned to existing projects on the market, purchasing homes at relatively firm prices in March. According to caveat data, about 56% of non-landed new private homes transacted in March 2022 were priced below S$2 million (see Figure 1), down from 62% in February. The majority of transactions below S$2 million involved homes in the RCR (48.5%), followed by the OCR (33.4%) and CCR (18.1%).

In the RCR, the median transaction price for non-landed new private homes (excluding ECs) rose by 4.8% month-on-month to S$1.86 million, while the median transaction price in the OCR increased by 5.7% month-on-month to S$1.75 million. In contrast, the median transaction price for non-landed new private homes in the CCR fell by 4.9% month-on-month to S$2.24 million in March, based on caveat data from the URA Realis system.

Meanwhile, Anjia SG observed that the gap in median transaction prices for non-landed new private homes between the CCR and RCR has narrowed from 32.6% in February to 20.3% in March. With cooling measures putting greater pressure on the CCR, prices for CCR units may remain soft. The value of RCR projects may see a slight increase as the number of available units for sale decreases, or when new projects are launched at benchmark prices. The narrowing price gap may present more buying opportunities for CCR projects for buyers.

Market Outlook

Including March sales, developers sold 1,880 new private homes (excluding ECs) in the first quarter of 2022, a 46% decrease from the 3,493 units sold in the same period of 2021. The drop in sales was due to a significant reduction in the number of units launched for sale by developers. In March, 309 new units were launched, bringing the total number of units for sale in Q1 2022 to 682, an 81.7% decrease from the 3,716 units launched in Q1 2021.

Overall, new private home sales in the first quarter of 2022 were sluggish compared to last year. The reasons include new property restrictions, fewer new launches, a seasonal lull, and increased uncertainty.

Anjia SG expects home sales to pick up pace starting from the second quarter of 2022 as developers launch more new projects. Some of the new launches expected in April and May include North Gaia EC, LIV@MB, and Piccadilly Grand.

Anjia SG forecasts that new private home sales for the full year of 2022 will be around 9,000 to 10,000 units (excluding ECs).

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