Private home sales volume surges 40% in July

And guess which are the top four projects accounting for about 41% of the total number of units sold.

Riverparc Residence, Blossom Residences, Skyline Residences, and The Miltonia Residences sold 805 units in total, or 41% of total units sold, according to PropNex’s report.

Private home sales increased almost 40% M-on-M to 1,954 units transacted in July 2011, including executive condominium units, and an increase of 17% M-on-M, excluding executive condominium units, showing signs of improvement from the lackluster month of June.

It was interesting to note that the top 4 selling projects in July came from the sale of Executive Condominiums and mainly in the Outside Central Regions. Riverparc Residence sold 322 units at $691psf, Blossom Residences sold 192 units at $702 psf, and Skyline Residences sold 167 units at a median price of $1902psf while The Miltonia Residences sold 124 units at $871 psf. These four projects were certainly instrumental in the robust sales figure, accounting for 805 units, or about 41% of the total number of units sold in July 2011.

“July saw one of the record number of new project launches in 2011 as developers launched the new projects before the Hungry Ghost Festival in August. Interest rates had remained low and that the market was upbeat before US took a downtown of the credit ratings. The rising COV prices had made some first time home buyers considered switching from resale market to the private apartments in the OCR,” highlighted by Mr Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex Realty. He explained that it was the affordable price of the four best-selling projects in July that facilitated such a relatively healthy volume of transactions.

CEO PropNex Mr Ismail expects August sales to hold steady in the private property market as many new property launches are being held back till later part of the year. Transactions may be closed at a slower pace due to the growing concern over the debt woes in Europe and US, and this will have some impact on the sentiment locally and home sales.

Additionally, July’s private property results are not likely be repeated in the upcoming months as the market remains soft in the Hungry Ghost month and the most recent HDB breaking away from its long-held unchanged income ceiling for home buyers of BTO flats and Executive Condominiums may have some impact on the private property sector. With the income ceiling revision for these home buyers, more will switch to BTO flats and ECs, thus, the resale and mass market condominiums may see a decline in demand. He also cautioned that developers as well as investors should remain sensitive to the pricing of their projects.

Photo from DSK Developers Ltd