The weakest new home sales since 15 years in 2023 were due to the December downtime.
New home sales for December were the lowest they’ve been in 15 months, and the total year is now at its weakest level since 2008.
It was not surprising that sales fell last year, as developers resisted launching new projects in response to successive cooling measures on the market and a weakening buying sentiment.
The average take-up rate of new projects during the first 30 days after launch, also declined from 64% to 72.5% in both 2021 and 2022. It then dropped to 55% by 2023.
Urban Redevelopment Authority data released on Monday (15 January) shows that 135 condominiums were sold by developers in December 2023.
December’s sales are 83 percent lower than 784 units that were sold in November of 2023 and 21 percent lower than the 170 unit sold the month before.
Grand Dunman at Dakota
In January 2009, new home sales were at their lowest since the seasonal year-end slump, and the fact that no new projects were launched in the month.
The estimated number of new homes sold for 2023 is 6,452. This is about 9.1 percent less than the 7,099 units sold in the year 2022, and roughly half the amount sold by developers in the year 2021.
In 2008, 4,264 new houses were sold.
Sales declines in the past year can be attributed to several factors. These include property cooling measures that were implemented in April 2023.
The results of the year are encouraging, given that stamp duty will be increased in April 2023 to all buyers except Singaporeans buying their first home.
The number of new projects sold in December in the Outside Central Region, Rest of Central Region and Core Central Region was 45 and 66 respectively. That is higher than 24 units in Core Central Region.
The Continuum was the best-selling project in December. It sold 17 units for a median price S$2,775 psf, and The Landmark had 13 units that changed hands for S$2,853 psf.
The Myst sold nine units with a median selling price of S$2,199/sqft and J’den had seven units that sold for S$2,577/sqft.
Grand Dunman Condo
Midtown Modern and Watten House are the two best-selling CCR Projects in December 2023. They each sold six units for a median of S$2,882 and S$3,258 respectively.
RCR was the largest seller of new homes, with 3,040 (47.1%) units, followed closely by OCR (1,953 (30.3%) and CCR (1,459 (22.6%).
The RCR’s total new-sales volume in 2023 increased by 11.3 percent year over year. However, those of the OCR, CCR, and CCR decreased by 21 and 23 percent, respectively.
In 2023, approximately 32.4 percent of all new homes will be sold between S$1.5M and S$2M, and about 20.8 percent within S$2M and S$2.5M, and 18.2 percent within S$1M and S$1.5M.
Even in 2024, the majority of home sales will be for homes priced up to S$2.5m.
