Singapore Home Sales Jumped 256% in January as Buyers Snapped Up New Projects

Sales of new private homes in Singapore rose more than three and a half times in January compared to the first month of last year, as buyers regained their hunger for housing thanks to lower interest rates and a salvo of new projects.

Developers sold 1,083 new private homes last month (excluding the public-private hybrid executive condo segment), according to figures released by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday, up from 304 units in January 2024 and more than five-times the December total of 203 homes.

Analysts attributed the surge to more affordable financing and a burst of supply as developers face the possibility of fresh market curbs from a government eager to keep a lid on home prices.

“In our view, buying sentiment has improved substantially since the tail-end of 2024, with the moderation in interest rates and influx of new launches being the key catalyst for sales,” Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at property agency PropNex Realty said in a statement.

After Singapore home prices jumped in the fourth quarter the city-state’s leadership in January warned that it was ready to put further restrictions on the market, should the trend continue in the new year.

Strong Start to 2025

January’s total sales of new, private housing marked only the second time that developers had sold a thousand homes or more in a single month since July 2023, PropNex pointed out, with the November 2024 tally having reached 2,560 units.

The largest portion of last month’s total came from a pair of new launches, with three projects accounting for 79 percent of developer sales in January.

The Orie, a joint venture between City Developments Limited (CDL), Frasers Property and Sekisui House in the Toa Payoh area sold 680 of its 777 units as buyers absorbed the first project launched in the neighbourhood in eight years. Buyers paid an average of S$2,731 ($2,036) per square foot for that new launch.

Bagnall House, a freehold project developed by Roxy Pacific Group next to the Sungei Bedok MRT Interchange in Singapore’s Upper East Coast region, sold 75 of its 113 units at a median price of S$2,494 per square foot.

One Bernam, a joint venture between Chinese developers MCC Land and Hao Yuan Realty in the Tanjong Pagar area, sold 99 homes last month after having first launched in 2021.

Developers introduced 896 new private homes to the market in January after rolling out just 20 units in December, according to the URA, with two new launches this month expected to further fuel the market.

ELTA, the first project launch in Clementi in four years, attracted more than 4,500 visitors in the first three days of its debut, according to property agency Huttons, while ParkTown Residence in northeastern Singapore’s Tampines areas brought in over 10,000 visitors in its three-day opening.

Rebound Continues

Huttons estimates that February sales of new private homes will exceed January’s total and now predicts that developer will sell from 7,000 to 8,000 units this year after finding buyers for 6,560 homes in 2024.

After home prices rose 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, In a media interview published in the Straits Times last month Singapore’s Minister for National Development, Desmond Lee, signaled the government’s readiness implement new market curbs in a move interpreted as an attempt to cool buyer exuberance.

“Let the supply and demand-side measures work their way through. We are not averse to putting in new measures if necessary, because we need to ultimately make sure that there’s no property bubble, whether it’s on the private side or on the public housing sector,” Lee said at the time.

Analysts believe that a second consecutive month of rising home prices could provoke a government response, giving developers fresh motivation to bring projects to market.