Condo resale volume more than halved in April

But figure should be seen as “encouraging” given that physical viewings are prohibited.

An estimate of 309 condo units were resold in April, a 57.3% MoM crash compared to the 723 units resold in March, according to data from SRX. Resale volumes are also 62.2% lower than in April 2019, and 66.8% lower than the five-year average volumes in April.

Yet OrangeTee & Tie’s head of research & consultancy Christine Sun considers this figure encouraging, given that no house viewings can be conducted.

“All physical house viewers were not allowed to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus within the community. Although some have turned to virtual house tours as an alternative, it will still take time for remote house viewings to gain traction as potential buyers may still prefer to make a final inspection of the units before they make a purchase,” she added.

Sun also noted that it is still not the lowest inked, missing the title by four units. The last lowest volume was 305 units sold in January 2015, citing data from URA.

Broken down by region, 58.1% of the volumes are from the Outside Central Region (OCR), 23.2% from the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and 18.8% from Core Central Region (CCR).

Meanwhile, prices slipped 0.2% MoM and 0.7% YoY in April as two regions posted declines. RCR and OCR prices fell by 0.5% and 0.8% MoM, whilst CCR prices inched up 1.4% MoM in April.

The highest transacted price for a resale unit in the month was achieved at Ardmore Park in CCR for $27.7m. The priciest deal in the RCR is a unit at The Waterside resold for $3.8m, whilst a unit at the Hillion Residences resold for $2.7m was the most expensive transaction in the OCR.

Notably, a super-luxury condo at Ardmore Park was transacted at $27.7m or $3,163 psf. “Whilst the number of super-luxury transactions above $10m may not be big, it is still a 'remarkable feat' that two of such luxurious condominiums were sold during the circuit breaker period. This may indicate that despite the pandemic, Singapore remains to be an attractive investment destination to the ultra-rich,” noted Sun.

Furthermore, overall transaction over X-value (T-O-X) is negative $11,000 in April, a $9,000 decrease as compared to March. District 26 (Mandai / Upper Thomson) posted the highest median T-O-X at positive $52,500, followed by District 1 (Boat Quay / Raffles Place / Marina) at positive $5,000.

District 10 (Tanglin / Holland / Bukit Timah) posted the lowest median T-O-X at negative $50,000, followed by District 20 (Ang Mo Kio / Bishan / Thomson) at negative $35,000.

Moving forward, Sun is expecting around 250-300 units that could be sold in May as the circuit breaker measures are still in place, whilst around 500 units could be sold after the measures ease and house viewings can resume.