Singapore New Home Sales Surged 80% to 7-Month High in April

Sales of new private homes in Singapore shot up 80 percent in April to a seven-month high of 887 units, driven by a pair of project launches in the Rest of Central Region, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday.

The city-fringe RCR saw 628 new homes sold last month (excluding executive condos), with Tembusu Grand and Blossoms by the Park accounting for 89 percent of the regional total and 63 percent of the city-state’s overall sales.

The government’s latest moves to tame the red-hot housing market, including a doubling of additional buyer’s stamp duty paid by foreigners that took effect in late April, showed signs of chilling inbound demand. According to data up until 7 May, eight foreigners bought units at EL Development’s Blossoms by the Park while 25 of the buyers were permanent residents and 173 were Singaporeans, said Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex Realty.

“It is still early days yet, but we think the ABSD rate hike appears to be taking effect in crimping foreign investment demand,” Wong said in a release. “Foreigners are taking a backseat for now, as they assess the impact of the latest cooling measures and perhaps consider other investment options.”

Frasers Project Sells Out

Tembusu Grand, a joint project of Singapore’s CDL and Hongkong Land unit MCL in Katong, sold 354 out of its total 638 units in April at a median price of S$2,463 (now $1,842) per square foot. Blossoms by the Park at Slim Barracks Rise moved 205 out of its 275 units at a median price of S$2,427 per square foot.

The Core Central Region, a proxy for luxury homebuyers, transacted 208 new private homes in April, up 5.6 percent from March. Bukit Sembawang Land’s The Atelier in Newton was the best-selling CCR project, shifting 46 units at a median price of S$2,658 per square foot.

Also in the CCR, Frasers Property’s 455-unit Riviere in Queenstown sold its final 10 units at a median price of S$2,954 per square foot after the developer acquired the site of the old Zouk nightclub in 2017 and launched the project in May 2019.

New home sales in the Outside Central Region fell 78 percent to 51 units in April amid an absence of new launches. The top seller in the OCR was Sim Lian Group’s The Botany at Dairy Farm, where 12 units sold at a median price of S$2,087 per square foot.

Local Buyers Ascendant

Singaporeans and permanent residents made up 92 percent of overall new private home sales (excluding executive condos) in April, on a par with March levels. “We anticipate that the proportion of sales to local buyers could increase further in May, with the impact of the ABSD hike (introduced from 27 April) taking effect over the entire month of May,” PropNex’s Wong said.

Given the highest prevalence of foreign demand (18 percent) in the primary CCR market, the impact of the latest cooling measures has been felt most keenly in that segment, according to Lam Chern Woon, head of research and consulting at Edmund Tie.

With the limited ABSD hike of 3 to 5 percentage points for investment homes by Singaporeans and permanent residents, Edmund Tie expects fairly buoyant overall demand for new project launches in the fringe and suburban markets in the months ahead.

“On the whole, housing demand is poised to soften in 2023, on the back of elevated economic uncertainties and borrowing costs, a softer public resale market and the expected wait-and-see stance in the wake of the recent cooling measures,” Lam said. “Primary sales for 2023 are expected to come in at around 7,000 to 8,000 units, sustained by organic housing demand and still healthy labour market conditions.”