Private home sales' 30.8% drop in October 'unsurprising': analyst

Developers have sold only 642 private residential units in October.

There’s an “unsurprising” 30.8% YoY and 51.7% MoM drop in new home sales in October, according to the latest report by OCBC Investment Research.

For October, developers have sold only 642 private residential units, not including ECs, according to statistics from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

According to the OCBC Investment Research’s report, the lower sales can be attributed to “the effects of URA’s new restrictions on the re-issue of option to purchase (OTP) by developers which came into effect from 28 September, coupled with the fact that there was only one project launched in October.”

Meanwhile, for the first 10 months of 2020, developers have sold 8,021 new private residential units (down 4.5% YoY); however, the number is “on-track” to meet the upper-end of OCBC Investment Research’s full-year forecast of 8,000-9,200 units.