Full-year home sales could dip to a sluggish 15-16K

TDSR measure proving too effective.

"We expect sales to remain slow for the rest of the year, and we now expect full-year sales to be around 15-16k units (excl. ECs). The softening in HDB resale prices is also a likely precursor to moderating prices in the mass market private property segment, in our view," Maybank Kim Eng said in an analysis.

Maybank Kim Eng based its forecast on the fact that only 742 new homes were sold in August as the total debt servicing framework or TDSR framework for loans introduced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore continued to weigh heavily on the residential property market, possibly inflicting a more detrimental impact than the seven rounds of actual cooling measures.

The 742 sales performance represented a 54% month-on-month improvement, but only because of a bottomed-out base in July, which saw private property sales dip to a three-year low of 482 units sold.

Given this backdrop, the property research firm picked CMA as its top sector bet for its retail mall exposure.