Sluggish sales could hit property market in August: analysts

Buyers usually prefer to postpone purchases during the hungry ghost festival.

The hungry ghost festival in August where buyers usually prefer to hold back purchases may take its toll on the property sales for the month, Colliers International and OrangeTee and Tie said.

The significant drop in sales may even continue to September, according to Colliers International. In addition, buyers’ knee-jerk reaction to the latest cooling measures will add to the yearly ghost month trend.

“Many developers are going ahead with their launches from October, including Jadescape, The Jovell, Parc Esta, Kent Ridge Hill Residences, Treasures at Tampines and The Woodleigh Residences,” OrangeTee and Tie head of research and consultancy Christine Sun noted.

In the past 10 years, the Singapore market saw a median decline of 2.1% in August.

“That said, we do not rule out some developers potentially delaying launches as they reassess the market and re-strategise after the measures were rolled out,” Colliers International said.

Despite the expectation of impending sluggish sales in August, Colliers International believe that home sales for the whole year of 2018 will hit 8,500 to 9,000 units, not including executive condominium units. Said figure is 15% to 20% lower than the 10,555 total units sold in 2017.

They added that some projects that could potentially be launched for sale in the latter part of 2018 will include Jadescape (former Shunfu Ville), Jui Residences (former National Aerated Water Company building), and Parc Esta (former Eunosville). The firm believes that ECs will be completely sold out by the end of August whilst the next EC launch will be the Sumang Walk project in 2019.