Private residential units sold by developers in March 2024

SINGAPORE, April 15, 2024 – On 15 April 2024, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released the data on developer sales for the month of March 2024.

A summary of the launches and sales is provided in the Appendix.

Ms. Chia Siew Chuin, Head of Residential Research, Research & Consultancy at JLL
谢岫君, 私宅市场研究部主管 (新加坡) commented:

Key Observations

After a slow start in the first two months of 2024, new private home sales (excluding executive condominiums or ECs) gained momentum in March on the back of fresh project launches.

Two major new suburban launches in March – Lentor Mansion and Lentoria – fuelled a 4.7-fold increase in new private homes sales from February to 718 units in the month. Together, these projects made up 65.3% of the total monthly new home sales in March. The rise in monthly sales reflects a degree of confidence among homebuyers despite prevailing uncertainties, particularly towards selected projects with attractive selling points and reasonable pricing.

Year-on-year (y-o-y), overall new sales rose 45.9% from 492 units but were 13.6% below the 5-year average of 831 units for the month of March. This brings 1Q24 new private home sales to 1,175 units, an 6.4% y-o-y decline from 1,256 units sold in 1Q23. Compared to a year ago, prospective homebuyers have turned more cautious due to multiple rounds of market cooling measures, softer economic conditions, and high financing costs. Increased options and prices have made homebuyers more selective and price-conscious, resulting in slower sales take-up as they take longer to make homebuying decisions.

Overall, take-up has notably eased on the back of the tentative sentiment towards homebuying. JLL Singapore research’s shows that the average take-up rate for new projects (where the project size consists of at least 100 units) within the first month of their launch fell from 72% in 2022 to 55% in 2023. The take-up for similar private residential projects launched in 1Q24 averaged 40% compared to 47% in 1Q23.

Developers released 877 new private home units for sale in March, 19.5 times the 45 units launched for sale Lunar New Year month in February, and an increase of 53.1% y-o-y. This brings the total new launch tally in 1Q24 to 1,339 units, which is a rise of 26.3% q-o-q and 2.1% y-o-y. However, this remains below the 5-year 1Q average of 2,066 units, suggesting developer’s cautious approach to timing their project launches.

Project Launches and Sales by Market Segment

March’s new home sales was powered by the Outside Central Region (OCR), which rose by 10.4 times month-on-month (m-o-m) to 605 units in the month. Sales from the fresh project launches of Lentor Mansion and Lentoria collectively accounted for 469 units or 77.5% of the total new sales in the OCR and 65.3% of overall new private home sales in March. This is the strongest monthly performance in the OCR since September 2022, when 686 new homes were transacted.

Sales in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) increased by 8.2% m-o-m to 66 units, accounting for 9.2% of total developers' sales. Sales at ongoing projects like The Continuum, Grand Dunman, and Pinetree Hill contributed to March’s sales, but the tally fell significantly below the 5-year March average of 278 units. New sale numbers in the RCR remained subdued due to the absence of compelling major project launches since July 2023. In March, the newly launched 35-unit Ardor Residence sold just one unit and the 17-unit Koon Seng House managed to move two units.

New sales in the Core Central Region (CCR) continued to improve for the third month in a row, with a 38.2% m-o-m increase from 34 units in February to 47 units in March. Since the introduction of Watten House in November 2023, there have been no new projects launched in the CCR. The top-selling CCR projects in the month were Watten House which sold 12 units at a median price of $3,255 psf and 19 Nassim which sold 11 units at a median price of $3,304 psf.

In 1Q24, the OCR came out tops with 829 new sales, representing a quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) increase of 28.7% and the highest quarterly tally for the market segment since 3Q22. Local buyers including public flat upgraders as well as mass-market suburban project launches continued to drive new sales. The RCR chalked up 240 new sales in 1Q24, slightly above the 233 units sold in previous quarter. New private home sales in the CCR fell 50.7% q-o-q to 106 deals, the lowest quarterly sales seen since 4Q18, when just 89 new home sale deals were recorded following the implementation of the July 2018 market cooling measures. The lack of major project launches amid market cooling measures, market uncertainties and still-high interest rates led to subdued new home sales in the RCR and CCR in 1Q24.

Sales by Residential Status of Buyers and Price Range

On the back of the new launches of Lentor Mansion and Lentoria, Singaporeans bought more private new homes, comprising 91.7% of all new private homes sold in March, an increase from 83.0% in February. Permanent Residents (PRs) made up 6.5% while non-PR foreigners accounted for 13 transactions or 1.8%, up from 4 units in February. The share of new private home purchases by non-PR foreigners continues to remain low since the hike in Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for these buyers in April 2023.

In terms of price range, the largest share of new private homes sold was within the $1.5 million to less than $2.0 million category, accounting for 31.1% of sales. Following behind was the $1.0 million to less than $1.5 million bracket, representing 27.5% of sales. Deals that were priced between $2 million to less than $2.5 million made up 21.5%. In March, 1.4% of the transactions that represented high-value deals of $5 million to $12 million took place in the CCR.

Outlook

Prospective buyers will remain cautious and watchful of market conditions, upcoming project launches and interest rate trends.

However, local demand for private housing should remain resilient, and this will be supported by the still-low unemployment rates and strong household balance sheets. The favourable combination of ample market liquidity and anticipated improvements in the economic and interest rate environment in the second half of this year are expected to lift overall market sentiment. The healthy pipeline of new project launches is also expected to spur market activities and support homebuying demand.

Assuming no unexpected events occur, developers could sell 7,000 – 8,000 new homes and overall private home prices are projected to rise modestly by 3% – 5% in 2024.

Appendix

March’s launch numbers were mainly led by the newly released Lentor Mansion and Lentoria, which collectively accounted for 91.2% of all launches in the month. Ardor Residence and Koon Seng House are small projects and they made up just 5.9% of all launches in March.

Details of the four fresh project launches are provided in Table A.

Table A – New Launches

^{Source: URA}

The top-selling projects are listed in Table B below. Notably, the top five projects are all located in the OCR. The freshly launched Lentor Mansion was the top-selling project last month with 409 units changing hands at a median price of $2,269. Buyers were attracted to the project’s convenient location as well as its unique design that draws inspiration from the colonial-era black-and-white bungalows. Another newly debuted project, Lentoria, was also a top seller in March, transacting 60 units at a median price of $2,129 psf.