Monthly Developer Sales - January 2025

The new year 2025 started on an encouraging note with 1,083 developer sales (excluding executive condominiums (ECs)) in January, exceeding the previous month of December by 433.5% when most homebuyers were away for the year-end holidays and when developers did not launch any new projects. Starting the new year with more than 1,000 new sales in the first month signaled continued demand for new product, given that the only month in 2024 that exceeded 1,000 new sales was in November. Sales at new project launches at The Orie in Toa Payoh (680 units or 88% of the project total) and Bagnall Haus in Upper East Coast Road (75 units or 66% of the project total) led the charge accounting for 69.7% of the total developer sales (excluding ECs) in January. Adding to this, One Bernam in Tanjong Pagar sold 99 units reportedly due to hefty discounts in the middle of the month. The monthly median price of One Bernam was S$2,521 psf in January 2025, compared to S$2,803 psf in December 2024 and S$2,691 psf in November 2024. As a result, there are only three remaining units at One Bernam.    

Sales in 2025 at new launches should pick up pace, making up for the muted primary market in both 2023 and 2024, as relatively 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. The positive momentum in Q4 2024 has spilled over into the new year with more prominent launches, underpinned by various factors. These include, household net worth in Singapore that remains on a steady path of improving affluence, a low unemployment rate, and wealth that is passed down from earlier generations of Singaporeans that have benefitted from asset appreciation.

Knight Frank projects that non-landed new sales volume would likely range between 7,000 and 9,000 in 2025, with overall non-landed home transactions from 19,000 to 23,000, so long as the government does not announce anymore punitive measures to curb homebuyer demand. After all, private residential price growth stabilised to a moderate 3.9% in 2024, after having chalked up increases of 6.8% in 2023, 8.6% in 2022 and 10.6% in 2021. Although there will be some cautious optimism, 2025 is likely to be a more active year for the private home market despite the prevailing uncertainties on the global stage. Prices are likely to grow between 3% and 5%, with the growth supported by moderate-to-healthy take-up rates at new launches in 2025. However, not all projects launched in 2025 will perform equally well. Homebuyer demand will largely be dependent on the specific location and property attributes of each specific new project launch, with some projects doing better than others.