Singapore private home sales jump 40% in December

Sales of private homes by developers in Singapore rose 39.7% in December compared to the same period a year ago, figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday showed.

Excluding executive condominiums (ECs) which are public-private housing hybrids, developers sold 602 private homes in December last year. The sum is an increase from the 431 units sold in the same month a year ago. Compared to November, private homes sales dropped by 50.1%, as the month before had transacted a total of 1,201 units.

Out of the 602 units sold, 16 units were from the core central region (CCR) or city centre, 293 units were in the rest of central region (RCR) or city fringes, and 293 units were from the outside central region (OCR) or suburbs.

For December, only 101 units were released for sale (excluding ECs), a steep 92.5% decline from November's 1,342 units launched. Out of the 101 units released, 100 were from an existing launch at the Affinity at Serangoon.

“Sales demand is relatively healthy considering no new projects were launched last month and the traditional lull period for buying activities during the year-end holidays,” OrangeTee & Tie’s head of research and consultancy Christine Sun said in a report.

Including ECs, developers moved 605 units last month, a 13.9% increase from the 531 units sold the same period a year ago.

For the whole of 2018, it is likely for developer sales to reach about 9,264 units excluding ECs, which is “within our earlier projection of between 9,000 and 10,000 units”, Ms Sun commented.

Property developers’ shares were mostly in the black on Tuesday, as bullish investor sentiment ahead of the Brexit vote and China’s pro-growth talk also helped with the numbers.

City Developments’ shares closed the day’s trading S$0.11 or 1.26% higher, at S$8.82, while CapitaLand’s shares edged up 0.31% or S$0.01, at S$3.28.