Check out these depressing home sales amid sluggish launches

Primary sales crashed 27% to 1,421 units.

According to DBS, August primary homes sales dipped 27% m-o-m, concentration largely on mass market projects. The bulk of activity was mainly in Outside Central Region.

Here's more from DBS:

Monthly dip in home sales was expected. August primary home sales (incl ECs) dipped 26% m-o-m to 1,539 units. Excluding ECs, the decline was slightly higher 27% m-o-m to 1,421 units. The drop was expected because of the Hungry Ghost Month which also saw slower pace of launches. As a result, despite the lower volume sales, take up rate jumped to 127%.

This brings 8M12 sales to 15,604 units (ex ECs). The bulk of sales were concentrated in the Outside Central Region with 62% of transactions while the Core Central Region generated another 14% of sales. Projects that received good responses include Parc Olympia, City Dev’s Bartley Residences, UIC’s V on Shenton (average ASP S$2,019psf) and Flo Residences.

Policy concerns likely to weigh on sentiment. Looking ahead, with transactions volumes remaining robust amid a low interest rate environment and with the onset of QE3, we expect the government to remain watchful of the market. The recent move by HK authorities to lower LTVs for second homes has also raised concerns whether Spore could follow suit.

Hence, we believe this overhang could dampen market sentiment for property stocks despite investors taking a more risk-on stance.

Prefer diversifieds and non-residential plays. While mid-cap property developers are trading at significant discounts to book NAVs and downside is limited, we think the potential overhang would continue to weigh on the sector. We continue to like stocks with diversified business models or have strong market niches such as Capitaland and CMA.