More landed homes, prime condos go under the hammer in weak market

Fifty landed homes were put up for auction in 2015.

Repossessed landed homes and large condominiums featured prominently in Singapore’s property auction market this year, according to a report by Colliers.

Notably, the number of landed residential mortgagee listings more than doubled from 19 last year to 50 in 2015. Over half or 26 properties have larger land areas of more than 3,000 sq ft.

Among these large properties are semi-detached houses at Faber Walk in Clementi, Toh Avenue in Changi, Woodgrove Walk in Woodlands and a corner terrace at Eng Kong Drive in Upper Bukit Timah, among others. 

Other high-value landed homes that were put up for auction this year include a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) at Binjai Park off Dunearn Road and a detached house at One Tree Hill ofg Grange Road. This marks the first time in eight years that a GCB was put up for auction by the lender.

Similarly, the number of mortgagee listings for non-landed homes, comprising apartments and condominiums, rose by 36.5% from 104 units last year to 142 this year. 

Of these, 77 were large apartments that are greater than 1,500 sq ft in size. Specifically, 27 of them were located in the prime residential districts of 9, 10 and 11. 

“We see an increase in the number of these larger non-landed homes as mortgagee listings – particularly in the prime districts – because of the drop in both foreign and local buying interest, as well as affordability concerns arising from the restrictive loan curbs. Furthermore, owners are finding it challenging to secure tenants amid a weak leasing market plagued by supply woes and expatriates’ shrinking housing budgets,” said Grace Ng (黄黎明), Deputy Managing Director of Colliers International