June home sales crash to nine-year low as new project launches vanish

Old projects drove sales last month.

Developers sold 375 private homes last month. This is the worst June home sales since 2007, and analysts attribute the extremely soft sales figure to the glaring lack of new project launches.

"We believe developers have delayed new launches in anticipation of many people going away during the mid-year school holidays and given the already sluggish market. Developers have not released any new projects for two months in a row now," said Tricia Song, analyst at Barclays.

"This brings total developer sales for the first six months of 2015 to 3,496 units, 21% below 1H14 sales of 4,409 units. At this rate, full year 2015 developer sales will be fewer than 7,000 units, compared to last year’s 7,316 units," Song added.

Ong Teck Hui, National Director, Research & Consultancy at JLL noted that previously-launched projects like Botanique at Bartley, Lakeville and The Panorama topped the sales charts last month.

"Pricing is still key to moving sales, so whether 2H15 sales volume can improve depends on how attractive pricing is to buyers. However with talk of an early election, the question is whether developers would stiffen prices if they anticipate cooling measures being moderated. That could slow sales leading to a lower transaction volume in the interim,” he said.