Sales of new homes in 2023 will be the lowest since 15 years because of December’s downtime.
The sales slump was not surprising, since developers had held back on launching new project last year due to the successive market cooling and low buying sentiment.
The average rate of take-up for new projects with at least 100 units within the first one month has also dropped from 64 percent in 2021, 72 percent in 2022 to 55 cents in 2023.
Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) data from Monday, January 15, showed that developers sold 135 condos in December of 2023.
December’s sale was 83 percent lower than that of November 2023 (784 units) and 21 percent lower than those 170 units from the same month last year.
The Myst Condo
Sales of new homes fell to the lowest monthly level seen since January 2009 (108 units).
Estimated sales of 6,452 new houses in 2023 were 9.1 % lower than in 2022 (7,099 homes) and less than half what was sold by developers during 2021.
This year, the number of new home sales was also the lowest in 15 years.
A combination of factors could have contributed to the sales decline last year, including property cooling measures set for April 2023 and a lack of new projects, macroeconomic uncertainties, and interest rate increases.
The numbers are encouraging considering that the stamp duty rate will increase in April of 2023, except for Singaporeans purchasing their first homes.
For December, there were 45 and 65 transactions in the Outside Central Region.
The Continuum (where 17 units were sold for a S$2,775 median price per square foot) and The Landmark (where 13 units changed at S$2,853 psf) were the top two projects that were most successful in RCR city fringe.
The Myst had nine units sold at S$2,199 psf and J’den was next with seven units sold at S$2,577.
The Myst showflat
Midtown Modern was the most popular CCR project in December of 2023. It sold six apartments at a price median of S$2,882/sqft and S$3,258/sqft, respectively.
RCR sales accounted for 47.1 percent of all new private homes sold. The OCR followed with 1,953 (30.3%) and CCR, with 1,459 (22.6%).
The RCR new-sales volumes in 2023 were up 11.3% year-on year. In contrast, OCR sales and CCR sales fell by 21.3% and 23.3% respectively.
About 32,4% of the new houses sold in 2023 are priced between S$1.5-S$2million, around 20,8% fall within S$2-S$2.5million, while 18,2% fall within S$1-S$1.5million.
Even in 2024 the vast majority of transactions will still be home prices below S$2.5 million.
