Vacancy rate for private homes rises to 8.1% at end-Q4 2015

THE vacancy rate for completed private homes (excluding executive condos or ECs) rose to 8.1 per cent at the end of Q4 2015 from 7.8 per cent at the end of Q3 2015.

Developers completed 22,267 private homes and ECs in 2015, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said on Friday.

Based on the expected completion dates reported by developers, 26,467 units (including ECs) will be completed this year. Another 17,234 units (including ECs) will be completed in 2017.

ECs are a public-private housing hybrid.

URA data also showed that as the end of Q4 2015, there was a total supply pipeline of 55,638 uncompleted private residential units (excluding ECs) - a decrease from the 58,348 units at the end of Q3 2015. Of this number, 23,271 units remained unsold as at Q4 2015.

After adding the supply of 14,127 EC units in the pipeline, there were 69,765 units in the pipeline. Of the EC units in the pipeline, 6,744 units remained unsold.

For the whole of 2015, developers sold 7,440 private homes (excluding ECs), slightly higher than the 7,316 units they moved in 2014. For the whole of 2015, there were a total of 6,160 resale transactions, up from 4,964 transactions in 2014.

In 2015, there were 517 subsale deals, down from 567 transactions in 2014.

Last year, developers sold 2,550 EC units, an increase from the 1,578 EC units they moved in 2014.