Red light, green light

IN THE midst of signs pointing to a slowing housing market, one indicator tracking trading momentum is lighting up. Sub-sales are on the rise.

A property transaction is recorded as a sub-sale when a buyer resells a property bought directly from the developer, within the three to four years before the project’s completion.

Sub-sales are often taken as a proxy for speculative buying behaviour, and have recently surfaced from a trough in 2020 to reach their highest level in almost 10 years. The increased activity is nowhere near the volume seen at the market’s height in 2007, but has been creeping up over the past year.