New Private Home Sales on the Increase; Reflects Positive Outlook for 2021

SINGAPORE, 15 January 2021 – The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released its monthly private housing primary market sales information for December 2020 today. The data has shown an increase in the number of transactions for new private home sales.

Private residential primary market sales in December 2020

Real estate developers launched 1,349 private housing units, excluding Executive Condominium, for sale in December 2020, the third highest number of units launched in a single month last year.

Three new residential projects were launched last month, namely Ki Residential at Brookvale, Clavon, Phoenix Residences. They are located in Outside Central Region (OCR).

Subsequently, developers sold 1,217 private housing units in December, 57% higher than in November 2020, mainly contributed by the new major launches. As a result, about 75.9% of all the private housing units sold by developers in December was located in the OCR.

Although no new Executive Condominium (EC) project was launched in 4Q 2020, 48 EC units were sold in December, which was the same number as the preceding month.

Developers sold more properties in 2020

According to official data released by the Urban and Redevelopment Authority (URA) today (Jan 15), despite launching fewer private housing units and the property market being battered by the pandemic and economic recession in 2020, developers sold 10,024 private housing units in 2020, 1.1% higher than the 9,912 units sold in 2019.

Source: URA, ERA Research
*Note: Based on preliminary numbers

As a result, the take-up rate for private residential units has improved from 87.4% in 2019 to 92.1% last year. The increase in the take-up rate of EC was even more dramatically, from 61.6% in 2019 to 92.0% in the following year.

The improvement in the take-up rate was because developers held back the launches of major projects in the first half of 2020 due to the high level of pandemic-driven uncertainties in the market at the time. However, the sales and marketing activities continue unabated, leading to the higher sales volume last year.

Increased transactions reflect positive property market outlook for 2021

The Singapore residential property market has ended 2020 on a positive note. The launch and sales momentum are likely to continue into the first quarter of this year with the launch of major projects such as Normanton Park, Parc Central Residences and The Reef at King’s Dock.

“As the vaccination programme is rolled out in Singapore, housing demand could increase further in the second half of this year as the economy and job market improve,” said ERA Realty’s Head of Research & Consultancy, Nicholas Mak. “At the same time, homebuyers from overseas could return to Singapore as travel restrictions are gradually eased as more people are vaccinated. However, there could be fewer major residential launches in 2021 compared to last year. As a result, some housing demand could spill over to the resale market.”

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