New private home sales plunged 53.1% in December to 538 units: URA

Developers held back launches as buyers stayed quiet during the holidays.

A total of 538 new residential units were sold in the month of December, falling by 53.1% MoM, and 10.6% YoY, according to the developers' monthly sales data by Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

Also Read: Private homes sales up 23.2% to 1,147 units in November

Though December 2019 sales is slightly weaker compared to 2018, it is still higher compared to developer sales over the period of 2013-2017 when units sold were around 230 to a 431 count.

“December is typically a quiet month for the private housing market as developers hold back launches and home buyers go on holidays,” says Christine Li, head of research at Cushman and Wakefield.

Orange Tee & Tie’s head of research & consultancy Christine Sun says that the small number of launches, totalling 370 units were due to anticipation of a resurgence in buying interest at the beginning of the year, when buyers start returning after the year-end holidays.

For 2019, the number of units sold hit 10,892, a 14.6% jump compared to 2018. The best-selling projects for December were Parc Botannia, and Parc Clematis in the Outside Central Region (OCR), Parc Esta and Jadescape from the Rest of Central Region (RCR), and One Holland Village Residences, which is situated in the Core Central Region (CCR).

About 30 launches have already been lined up for H1 2020, with about 50% located in the Core Central Region (CCR) and the rest evenly spread between the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and OCR.

“The high-end market will be one to watch, with a slew of new launches expected to enter the market in 2020 and demand remains sporadic among launches. There were a total of 19 new launches in the CCR in 2019 and this could potentially increase to 22 new launches in 2020,” noted Li.

Li believes that developer sales momentum is expected to continue in 2020 with sales coming predominately from existing OCR and RCR launches where prices are more affordable and relatively lower compared to newer launches. Li sights that property sales for 2020 can total between 9,000 to 10,000 units for 2020.

Hutton Asia’s head of research Sze Teck Lee shares a similar forecast for sales volume in 2020.

“In 2020, we could potentially see up to 50 launches and 11,000 units launched for sale, with around 50% of the launches coming from the CCR. The sales momentum in 2019 is likely to carry forward in 2020. With positive news on the economy and bottoming out of the HDB resale market, we could see sales volume maintain at a similar level of between 9,000 and 10,000 units in 2020,” noted Lee.