More homebuyers turn to resale market amid high home prices: analysts

The resale condo market will continue to stay active this year.

As prices of new homes in Singapore continued to climb, more homebuyers are considering getting condos in the secondary market at lower costs, according to property analysts. 

This trend has helped push resale transactions in April to reach the highest monthly tally over the past year and maintain price growth momentum, said Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee. 

“As prices of new private homes hold steady or inch higher, potential buyers are considering older resale condos in the same area due to their lower prices. This trend seems to be more evident in areas with more new launches,” Sun said.

New project launches with the marketing campaigns and the buzz that comes with them generally raise awareness of existing private housing in the area, increasing the chances of homes being resold, she explained.

The volume of condos that traded in the resale market rose 23% to 1,122 units in April from the month before, with prices picking up by 1.5% during the same period according to data from 99. co and SRX.

That marked the second consecutive month of higher condo resales, which Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex Realty, said could be caused by the wave of homebuyers returning from the Lunar New Year break in February.

“Other prospective home buyers had been holding off on making a purchase or were waiting for interest rates and housing prices to fall,” Gafoor said.

READ MORE: Condo resale prices rise 1.5% MoM and 5.1% YoY in April

Moving forward, Huttons Asia CEO Mark Yip said the secondary market will continue to gather steam in the coming months but the overall resale price growth will still ease to 4% to 6% for the entire 2024 from the 7.3% increase last year.

“The resale condo market may stay active in the next few months due to the absence of new launches,” he said.