_Monthly Developer Sales - September 2022

Aspirations of buyers against limited inventory continue to translate into sales activity supporting prices when a compelling project is launched.

Leonard Tay October 17, 2022

The new launches at Lentor Modern and Sky Eden@Bedok drove the majority of sales in September 2022, accounting for 64.1% of the developer sales units (excluding Executive Condominiums (ECs)) during the month. These two headline-grabbing launches also set new price benchmarks with the reported median prices above the S$2,100 psf mark. The overall monthly total of 987 transactions was more than double the 437 chalked up in August, again illustrating the ample demand from homebuyers comprising both HDB upgraders as well as new family formations. Despite the latest cooling measures, progressive rise in interest rates, and the spectre of possible recessionary pressures, aspirations of buyers against limited inventory continue to translate into sales activity supporting prices when a compelling project is launched.

Although the above two suburban condominiums in the Outside Central Region (OCR) were in the limelight in September, it is notable that the projects that came in third to sixth in the list were all in the Core Central Region (CCR), comprising Leedon Green (31 units sold), Pullman Residences Newton (27 units sold), Perfect Ten (23 units sold) and Hyll on Holland (21 units sold) for a total of 102 units. Even though the 198 new sales in the CCR in September is 10% less than in August, there has been some steady traction of transactional activity of prime homes since borders reopened from April 2022, bearing in mind that the median psf prices of units in the CCR are higher than those in the OCR and characteristically have a more limited pool of buyers with the financial purchasing power to acquire such homes.

Based on the monthly developer sales data from July to September, together with the 4,222 new sales registered in H1 2022, about 6,480 primary sales have been accounted for in the first three quarters of the year - on track to reach around 8,000 to 9,000 units for the whole of 2022 as originally anticipated at the beginning of the year. Notwithstanding the latest round of cooling measures, homebuyers who are still on the lookout for a new home that is under development and hope to make a purchase before interest rates increase further, will likely continue to be active at launches in the remaining months of the year. Nevertheless, the mix of cooling measures just nine months apart, a possible recession in 2023, widespread inflation, and the manner in which private home prices have climbed in the last two-and-a-half years, will inevitably start to shift the sentiment of some homebuyers into tentative territory as interest rates progressively rise from now and into 2023.

_Monthly Developer Sales - September 2022

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