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DEVELOPERS in Singapore chalked up 301 new private home sales in April, 58.1 per cent lower than March’s take-up as fewer new units were launched in the month, official data showed on Wednesday (May 15). 

Year on year, last month’s new home sales were 66.2 per cent lower than the 890 units recorded in April 2023.

“The substantial drop in sales is also due to a higher base in March 2024, where developers’ sales surged on strong demand at Lentor Mansion,” said PropNex’s head of research and content, Wong Siew Ying.

While monthly new sales directly correlate with projects launched during the time, Knight Frank’s head of research Leonard Tay noted that in the first four months of 2024, monthly average new sales rang in at only 369 units. In comparison, new home sales averaged 556 units a month in 2023, and 616 units in 2022.  

April’s sales take the current tally for the year to date to 1,465 units, 31.7 per cent lower than the 2,146 units sold over the corresponding four-month period in 2023, said Tricia Song, CBRE’s head of research for Singapore and South-east Asia.

“Take-up has largely moderated and buying sentiment has turned cautious amid high interest rates and an uncertain economy,” she said.

“It appears that homebuyers are now even more selective than before, no longer showing the kind of urgency and fear-of-missing-out behaviour at showflats that was a feature of the market from H2 2020 to H1 2022,” said Tay.

Including ECs, new unit sales dropped 57.7 per cent from 832 units in March to 352 units in April, and were 61.4 per cent lower than the 912 units in April 2023.  

Only 278 private homes were launched in April, 68.3 per cent lower than March’s 877 units, and 65.2 per cent lower than the 798 units released in the year-ago period.

There were three new launches in April – The Hill @ One-North with a total of 142 units, and two boutique developments, The Hillshore (59 units) and 32 Glistead (14 units). 

While The Hill @ One-North was among the month’s best-performing projects with 42 units sold at a median price of S$2,614 psf, 32 Gilstead sold four out of 14 units at a median S$3,443 psf, while The Hillshore moved three units at S$2,599 psf. 

The strongest sales in the month came out of projects in the suburban Outside Central Region (OCR) and the city-fringe Rest of Central Region (RCR) areas, Song pointed out. 

“This is indicative that buyers have turned very price-sensitive amid economic weakness and high interest rates. They are also generally gravitating towards existing launches which are priced more competitively relative to more recent launches,” she said.

The best-selling project in the month was The Botany at Dairy Farm, which moved 50 units at a median price of S$2,003 per square foot psf. The 386-unit OCR project, launched in March last year, has sold 87 per cent of its units to date.

The second best-performing project was The Hill @ One-North, which sold 30 per cent of its total units at a median price of S$2,614 psf.

“This paled in comparison to the robust performance observed at nearby project Blossoms by the Park (275 units) which sold 75 per cent in its launch month back in April 2023. The weaker performance at The Hill @ One-North could be due to its comparatively high price point relative to Blossoms by the Park, which also sold seven units in April 2024 for a median price of S$2,531 psf,” said Song.

In the EC segment, new sales fell by 55 per cent from 114 units in March to 51 units in April. The best-performing project was the North Gaia EC where 33 more units were transacted at a median price of S$1,315 psf.

“With no new EC launches, buyers are snapping up the remaining units of EC stock,” said ERA’s key executive officer Eugene Lim.

The bulk of new sales in April – about 65 per cent or 195 units – were transacted in the S$2 million to S$2.5 million range, noted Lee Sze Teck, Huttons Asia’s senior director of data analytics. Almost a quarter – 23 per cent or 69 units – were sold at prices between S$1.5 million and S$2 million, while about 9 per cent of sales were done below S$1.5 million. Just nine units – 3 per cent of the total – were sold at over S$5 million.

Lee also observed that foreign buying, which had improved slightly in the past two months, was sustained. Foreigners bought 10 units in April and 11 units in March. 

“Heightened geopolitical tensions may be one reason behind the pick-up in interest,” he said. 

In  the high-end market, priced at S$10 million and above, there were five sales in April, versus one such sale in the previous month, said Mohan Sandrasegeran, Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI)’s head of research and data analytics.

Four of these transactions occurred at the newly launched 32 Glistead, with selling prices ranging from S$14.23 million (S$3,406 psf) to S$14.54 million (S$3,455 psf). Two units were bought by Singaporeans and the remaining two were purchased by Singapore Permanent Residents, said SRI.

Developers’ sales in May are expected to remain tepid with only two boutique projects slated to be marketed – the 21-unit Jansen House and the 16-unit Straits at Joo Chiat. June may be even more quiet, as the school holiday lull sets in.

Upcoming projects in the latter half of the year include The Chuan Park, Emerald of Katong in Jalan Tembusu and Sora in Jurong East. 

CBRE’s Song expects 7,000 to 8,000 new homes could be sold in 2024, an improvement from the 6,421 units in 2023 but still below the 5-year average new developer sales across the 2019 to 2023 period of 9,288 units.