Singapore residential market dodged the wave of cooling measures in 1Q13

Primary market sales hit 5,412 units.

According to Colliers International, developers sold more new private homes in 1Q 2013 than in 4Q 2012, despite the latest wave of cooling measures which are effective from 12 January 2013 and which affect most buyers (The sole group who is spared from the new rules are Singaporeans buying their first property.)

Colliers also said that even with the odds stacked against the private residential market, primary market sales bucked the traditional Lunar New Year period lull and an additional round of measures to post a quarterly sales volume of 5,412 units – which was just 2.5% below the average quarterly sales of 5,549 units achieved in the record breaking year of 2012.

"This is due to an aggressive pick-up in market activity in March, when the pent up demand resulted in buyers responding to sweeteners (such as part absorption of the stamp duty, price discounts and early-bird prices) dangled by developers as they rolled out more new projects, following the market-wide lull in February," Colliers noted.