Monthly Developer Sales (December 2024)

What a difference a month makes... November 2024 had the highest number of units launched for the year at 2,871 (excluding executive condominiums (ECs)), only to be followed by December with the lowest number of units launched with 20 more units from a project (The Myst) that was previously launched.

Based on the Monthly Developer Sales by URA, 203 new private homes were sold (excluding ECs), a stark 92.1% m-o-m decrease from the 2,560 units sold in November, essentially less than 10% of what was sold the previous month. This was naturally attributed to the year-end festive season when most prospective buyers were away for vacations, which probably prompted developers to also take a break from launching projects, regrouping in preparation for the year ahead instead.

Combined with the total primary sales in the first three quarters of the year together with the monthly developer sales from October to December, total new sales for 2024 was 6,560 units. The total new sales in 2024 will likely end the year slightly higher than the 6,421 new sales in 2023, by about 100 to 200 units when the final numbers are announced by URA later this month. The volume of new sales in 2024, like in 2023, will be about half that of the 13,027 new homes sold in 2021.

Nevertheless, sales in 2025 at new launches should pick up pace, making up for the muted primary market in both 2023 and 2024, as more benign interest rates are likely to motivate homebuyers from their watch-and-wait stance into a purchase, even though less interest rate cuts are now expected due to a second Trump presidency. Projects such as The Orie in Toa Payoh and Bagnall Haus off Upper East Coast Road are expected to usher in the new year with renewed activity.   

The burst of homebuyer activity in November is likely to ease into more sustainable levels with take up spread more evenly over in the first half of 2025. Demand will be supported by strong household balance sheets, the low unemployment rate, and wealth that is passed down from earlier generations of Singaporeans that have benefitted from asset appreciation to a younger generation hungry for their first private homes. Knight Frank projects that non-landed new sales volume will likely range between 7,000 and 9,000 in 2025.