Higher sales of private resale condo a ‘surprise': OrangeTee

Propnex, however, said otherwise.

An estimated 1,399 condominium units were resold in February, representing a 0.4% increase from the previous month’s 1,394, according to the latest SRX media flash report for condo resale.

According to OrangeTee’s senior vice president of research & analytics Christine Sun, the higher sales came as a "surprise" as sales activities typically slow down during the Chinese New Year period.

“More buyers are considering resale condominiums as prices of new homes have been holding firm despite the pandemic. Some new projects had even increased their selling prices over the past few months. There are also fewer mega launches, especially in the mass market segment. Many launched projects have been selling units consistently and their balanced unsold stock is fast diminishing. Therefore, some buyers may not have found suitable units and have turned to the resale market,” Sun said.

Meanwhile, Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex, believes that the private condo resale market continues to be supported by the substantial price discounts to newly launched units.

“This price gap between resale properties and new launches may have made resale units look more appealing to buyers, who by and large are still price sensitive. In addition, a sizable pool of HDB flat owners completing their 5-year Minimum Occupation Period this year could also be considering upgrading to a private home, particularly if their flat can fetch healthy profits in the HDB resale market,” Wong said.

Meanwhile, Sun said with the demand for resale homes increasing, resale prices have been climbing over the past few months.

According to SRX, condo resale prices increased 1% in February, the seventh consecutive climb per month. Year over year, overall prices increased 4.4% over February 2020.

“Although resale prices have been rising, the price gap between new and resale condominiums remains wide, which will keep some resale condominiums attractive among buyers. The price disparity also indicates that there is still a good potential upside for many resale condominiums and some are currently undervalued,” Sun said.

Wong, however, said that with sustained demand for resale properties and further improvement in market sentiment, resale prices should remain relatively stable with only a potential for a slight uptick this year.