Dunearn House sells 56% of 380 units at average of S$3,140 psf at launch

[SINGAPORE] New residential project Dunearn House, a Frasers Property-led development in the upcoming Turf City precinct, sold 56 per cent of its 380 units at its weekend launch, with analysts divided on the sales performance.

A total of 212 of the 380 units were sold at an average price of S$3,140 per square foot, with all three-bedroom units fully sold, the developers announced in a media statement on Sunday (Jul 26).

Dunearn House is developed by an equal-stake consortium comprising Frasers Property, CSC Land Group and Sekisui House.

Prices started from S$1.475 million for a two-bedroom unit (527 to 678 square feet), S$2.597 million for a three-bedroom unit (872 to 1,001 sq ft), and S$3.588 million for a four-bedroom unit (1,184 to 1,378 sf).  

Dunearn House comprises five blocks of apartments, with two-bedders accounting for about 46 per cent (176 units) of the homes, three-bedders making up about 25 per cent (96 units) and four-bedders accounting for about 28 per cent (108 units).

About 86 per cent of buyers are Singaporeans, 13 per cent are permanent residents (PRs) from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and other countries, while 1 per cent are from the US.

Kelvin Fong, CEO of PropNex, believed Dunearn House benefited from being the first residential development in the upcoming Bukit Timah Turf City precinct.

“Buyers were likely keen to secure an early stake in one of Singapore’s newest housing estates, where the government will progressively introduce new transport infrastructure, amenities, community facilities and green spaces over the coming years,” said Fong.

Mohan Sandrasegeran, head of research and data analytics at SRI, pointed to pricing as a factor, saying the launch sales suggested “developers who successfully balance attractive entry pricing with a quality product offering are likely to continue attracting healthy levels of buyer interest despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties”.

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Marcus Chu, CEO of ERA Singapore, noted that there had been a gap of several years without new 99-year leasehold projects being launched in Bukit Timah since 2018, and a “small” supply of about 3,400 units launched since 2010.

However, Nicholas Mak, Mogul.sg chief research officer, said that the sales paled in comparison to the earlier launches in the first half of this year, where nine projects with 4,854 units posted an average take-up rate of 75.8 per cent during the launch weekend.

Mak contrasted it with River Modern as well – 90 per cent of the River Valley condo’s 455 units were sold during the launch.

Lower take-up rates of the two most recent launches – Dunearn House and Lentor Gardens Residences – could signal a combination of buyers’ fatigue and resistance to the upwards property price spiral, Mak said.

Lentor Gardens Residence sold 54 per cent of its 499 units when it started taking sales bookings last week, in what was described by analysts as an “encouraging” launch.

Mak added: “Homebuyers have been inundated with residential launched in the past year-and-a-half. In the last 18 months, property developers have launched 39 residential projects with 17,917 housing units.

“Each new residential project is launched at higher prices than the preceding comparable residential projects in the vicinity as real estate developers attempt to expand the price envelope. However, developers would eventually have to come to terms that there is a limit to the size of the homebuyers’ bank account and investment appetite.”

PropNex’s Fong saw it differently, saying that buyers could be anticipating that housing prices for future projects may continue to rise.

Recent government land sale (GLS) tenders have seen residential land prices in the Rest of Central Region exceed S$1,400 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) to over S$1,500 psf ppr, while land rates for recent Core Central Region GLS sites have crossed the S$1,800 psf ppr mark, Fong noted.