SINGAPORE - New private home sales in December climbed to their highest level for the month in eight years, as buyers jumped in on expectations of further price increases with a post-pandemic economic recovery.
Last month's sales by developers jumped more than 57 per cent to 1,217 units from 774 in November. This was 126 per cent higher than a year ago.
Sales were driven by new launches - Clavon in Clementi sold 473 units at a median price of $1,637 psf, while Ki Residences At Brookvale shifted 172 units at a median price of $1,766 psf. Together, the two projects accounted for 53 per cent of new home sales last month, according to PropNex. The previous record was in December 2012, when 1,410 new homes were transacted.
The second half of 2020 marked a surprising turnaround and the pent-up demand for new private homes helped to propel the full-year total to 10,024 units, which exceeded 2019's 9,912 transactions, about 1 per cent higher.
"Annual new home sales have not surpassed 10,000 units after the introduction of fresh cooling measures in July 2018, and for this to happen in 2020 - a year fraught with great uncertainties - is a... testament to the market's strength," Mr Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex said.
"As Singaporeans have been advised to defer all travel until the global situation is under control, more locals have visited showflats during the holiday season," Ms Christine Sun, senior vice-president of research & analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, observed.
The figures from the URA on Friday (Jan 15) exclude executive condominium (EC) units, which are a public-private housing hybrid. Including ECs, new home sales came to 1,265 units - up nearly 54 per cent month on month and 129.6 per cent more than a year ago.
The number of new units launched in December surged 265 per cent from a year ago, but dipped 1.9 per cent from November.
A total of 23 private residential projects were launched in 2020 - 10 projects before the circuit breaker and 13 projects after, according to Huttons Asia.
Existing top-selling projects include Parc Clematis, Treasure at Tampines, Jadescape and Piermont Grand.
Projects outside of central region (OCR) accounted for 75.9 per cent or the bulk of total new home sales due largely to Clavon and Ki Residences At Brookvale, while 19.1 per cent of sales were in the rest of central region (RCR), and 4.9 per cent in the prime or core central region (CCR).
