Take-up rates remain healthy as Singapore home sizes keep shrinking

New houses were downsized by 20% since 2010.

Take-up rates of new private residential units remained buoyant in 3Q12, particularly for the mass-market segment and smaller units at price quantums below S$1m levels.

Projects that sold well during the quarter were Parc Centros (median selling price of ~S$920 psf) and Parc Olympia (~S$870 psf).

V on Shenton, a project in the financial district, also saw a good take-up rate at median prices of around S$2,000 psf.

From caveats lodged,  OCBC see a trend of falling total transaction values since 2010, though the number of total units sold each year has been stable.  OCBC explained that this is mainly due to the decreasing average sizes of units sold.

"According to CBRE, the median size of units sold decreased from 1,044 sq ft in 2010 to 893 sq ft in 2011, and finally 840 sq ft for 2012 to date. We believe this is because developers are reducing the sizes of units
offered to the market, even for three or four bedroom units, to keep affordability levels under the S$1m price levels," it said.