Huttons’ comments on September developer sales numbers

Developer launched 1,340 units for sale and sold 1,329 units. This is 5.6% higher than August 2020 and 4.6% higher than a year ago. This marks the fifth consecutive month of increase in monthly sales since the circuit breaker in April 2020.

The strong sales achieved at Penrose almost single-handedly pushed September to become the highest monthly sales in 2020 and since July 2018. However, in July 2018, there was an introduction of cooling measures and frenzied buying on the day before cooling measures took effect pushed sales to a record high.

In the first nine months of 2020, developers have sold an estimated 7,532 units which is 0.8% higher than the same period in 2019.

While Singapore is headed for its biggest recession on record, the contraction is not broad-based and in part due to the 2-month circuit breaker. The manufacturing and export sectors have shown early signs of recovery since June and properties are one of the investment assets that will benefit from economic recovery. Strong monthly sales and price recovery in the property market since 2Q 2020 probably also gave buyers confidence to enter the market.

The top five private residential projects for September 2020 are:

Source: URA, Huttons Research

There will be an initial knee jerk reaction to the new policy by the Controller Of Housing on the reissue of options. This will take the wind out of the sails in the short term. But we believe the aim is to ensure a stable and sustainable market which is beneficial to the industry in the long term. More buoyant conditions in the resale market will help the owners to sell their existing properties faster and move on to a new property. In the short term, new sales is expected to moderate to between 600 and 700 units a month. For 2020, a total of 9,000 to 9,500 units may be sold, slightly lower than 2019’s 9,912 units.

• By Huttons Group
• Oct 15, 2020