60 projects to boost home sales in 2019

Overall sales could hit 19,000-22,000 units.

After cooling measures spurred a bleak home buy and sell season in 2018, the spring of 2019 is expected to bring in robust home sales (landed and non-landed excluding ECs – executive condominiums) that could hit 19,000 to 22,000 units this year, OrangeTee said.

OrangeTee managing director Steven Tan said in a report that 60 new residential projects are expected to boost new home sales in 2019. “Historically, a ramp-up in housing supply and marketing activities usually spurs buying interest,” he added.

One of the notable projects is the 1,410-unit Florence Residences, which is expected to start selling units by March 2019. It has an indicative average selling price (ASP) of $1,400 psf for units ranging from 1-bedroom to 5-bedroom. An analyst report indicated that project interest is spurred by upgraders from Hougang and Sengkang, and residents around the vicinity looking for investment properties.

According to Tan, developers are likely to spread their stock to be sold over the next two years as new home supply is expected to dip drastically from mid-2020 in tandem with the slowdown in collective sales last year. “Whilst more than 19,000 new homes may be launch-ready this year, the actual number of units launched could be around 12,000 — 14,000 units,” he added.

However, the substantial pipeline supply of private homes and uncertainty surrounding the US-China trade tensions could taper price growth to between 1-3%. “New homes prices may rise further by 1-4% as the land prices of some projects are relatively high. Resale home prices may remain flat or rise marginally in tandem with new sales by 1 and 2%,” Tan said.

Meanwhile, rentals are expected to remain robust and hit between -1% to 1% as the number of completions this year is expected to dip 2% this year and likely reach a fresh low next year.

Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that the expected completions (excluding ECs) dipped from 10,119 units as of Q3 2018 to 8,926 as of Q4 2018, indicating that some projects were completed earlier than expected, Tan noted. “Leasing demand is expected to strengthen further this year after reaching a ten-year high in 2018 with 88,400 leasing transactions,” Tan said.