Private residential sales up 79% to 6,682 units in 1Q12

Sales in the OCR alone nearly doubled the 4Q11 total, reaching 5,418 units.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the URA monthly sales volume for private residential units decreased by a marginal 1% m-o-m in March 2012 to 2,393 following the strong sales activity in February. Island-wide sales volume for 1Q12 reached 6,682 units, a significant 79% increase on 4Q11 and 81% more than 1Q11. The Outside Central Region continues to be the driving force behind the strong sales activity with the Core Central and Rest of Central regions seeing steady sales activity.

Sales activity continued to be robust in the OCR with 1,825 units sold, just seven less than in February, a marginal decline of 0.4% m-o-m. Total sales volume for the OCR in 1Q12 reached 5,418 units, nearly double the 4Q11 total.

This region continues to benefit from the influx of new supply, and the number of units launched increased to 2,119 in March, an increase of 35% m-o-m, reflecting a take-up rate of 86%, the lowest of all three regions this month. A further seven new non-landed projects launched in the month, providing 1,063 units in total, in addition to several large releases at already launched developments, most notably at Riversound where 390 units were launched in March.

Among the new launches, the largest was at Ripple Bay in Pasir Ris, where 386 units were launched and sales achieved for 84% of the units. Also performing strongly was Seletar Park Residences which achieved a take-up rate of 98% from the 100 units released. Other key launches in the region included Palm Isles (297 units launched), East Village and The Cristallo.

The RCR saw consistent sales activity in March as sales volume saw a marginal decrease of 3.4% m-o-m to 511 units. Launches however fell in the RCR, down by 19% m-o-m to 422 units helping to boost the take-up rate to 121%. There were four new launches of non-landed projects in March, namely The Lush, 18 Woodsville, Smart Suites and Millage. Millage proved to be most successful of the new launches, with only one unit remaining unsold and take-up reaching 99%.

The CCR was the only region to enjoy an increase in sales activity in the month, although it was a marginal increase from an already low base. Sales in the CCR totalled 57 units, up by 1.8% m-o- m. Launches however slowed by 63% m-o-m to only 41 units as no new projects were released for sale, and the CCR enjoyed the strongest take-up rate at 139%. The largest launch was at The Verv @ RV where 23 units were launched. Outside of this, 10 more units were launched at The Vermont on Cairnhill but otherwise launches were limited to no more than three units as developers drip feed remaining units to the market rather than launching new projects.