Private residential units sold by developers in June 2020

The easing of circuit breaker measures and reopening of showflats from 19 June was a major contributor to new home sales surging to 998 units in June 2020. It is the highest monthly sales of new private residential units so far this year. Easing of circuit breaker measures and reopening of showflats seem to have unleashed pent-up demand by buyers, suggesting that the private home market remains fairly resilient in spite of the Covid-19 outbreak and the recession.

Hampered by weaker sales in April and May, an estimated 1,762 new private homes were sold in 2Q20, 18% lower q-o-q and 25% lesser y-o-y. Tally for first half 2020, is an estimated 3,911 new private homes sold, just 6.6% lower than first half 2019, and quite on par with it. This is creditable performance taking into account how the economy has been ravaged by Covid-19 and the recession.

A significant observation is how the OCR submarket is holding up better than RCR and CCR. Based on estimated sales of new private homes in 2Q20, OCR posted a 4.2% increase over 1Q20 while RCR and CCR suffered declines of 10.7% and 60.4% respectively. The OCR submarket has proven to be more resilient due to more affordable pricing of OCR projects and demand from HDB upgraders.
 

Table A – New Private Home Sales Volume by Market Segment

^{Source: URA/JLL Research}

Appendix

With showflats allowed to reopen starting 19 June, market activities picked up significantly in June 2020. Developers did not rush to launch new projects last month, resulting in only one small project being launched, namely the 18-unit Parkwood Residences. It managed to sell one unit at a unit price of $1,323 psf in June.

597 new private homes were launched for sale in June, which was 3% lower than the 615 units placed on the market in May and about 11% lower y-o-y. The bulk of the units launched for sale in June was from previously launched projects such as Stirling Residences (150 units), The Florence Residences (100 units) and Parc Esta (100 units) which accounted for 59% of the total launched.

Despite showflats resuming activity only from 19 June onwards and the absence of major new launches, new private home sales surged to 998 units during the month, 105% higher than the 487 units taken up in May. More than 50% of June’s sales were transacted after 18 June, during phase 2 of the circuit breaker easing. Compared to the 821 units sold in June 2019, the 998 units sold in June 2020 was 21.6% higher.

Last month's take-up was led by projects in the suburban submarket (OCR), with 489 sales, followed by 430 units sold in the city fringes (RCR) and 79 in the prime submarket (CCR).

The top selling projects are listed in Table B below. The majority of the projects that achieved stronger sales in June such as Treasure At Tampines (104 units), Parc Clematis (90 units) and The Florence Residences (89 units) are located in the OCR submarket which has more affordable pricing.

Table B - Top Selling Projects

^{Source: URA}