Prime homes for auction dropped to a 2-year low in 2Q16

Only 21 units in 4 districts were auctioned.

Singaporeans may be snubbing the glitz and glam of luxury homes as auctioned properties dropped to just 21 units from districts 1, 9, 10, and 11, the lowest since 2Q14.

According to a recent report from Knight Frank, among these, seven units were put up for auction under mortgagee sale. This made up 16.3 per cent of all residential properties put up for auction under mortgagee sale (43 units), a drop from 30.8 per cent in Q1 2016 (12 out of 39 units). However, Knight Frank noted that this is an improvement from the 15.6 per cent seen in Q2 2015 (five out of 32 units).

"On the other hand, the number of landed properties put up for auction under mortgagee sale as a proportion of all landed properties put up for auction was at record high 50 per cent (17 out of 34 units). The total number of landed properties put up for auction increased 6.2 per cent q-o-q but fell19.0 per cent y-o-y; in contrast, the number of landed properties put up for auction under mortgagee sale witnessed significant growth of 54.5 per cent q-o-q and 142.9 per cent y-o-y," it added.

However, only one out of the 17 landed properties put up for auction under mortgagee sale was located in the prime districts (5.9 per cent). This paled in comparison with the record high 27.3 per cent witnessed in Q1 2016 (three out of 11 landed properties) and 14.3 per cent seen in Q2 2015 (one out of seven landed properties). "The number of non-prime landed properties put up for auction under mortgagee sale in Q2 2016 (16 units) was the highest seen," Knight Frank said.