Busy showflats, business as usual?

OVER the weekend, Far East Organization sold 520 units at its 732-unit Upper Bukit Timah project The Reserve Residences. The 71 per cent take-up rate for the city fringe project was topped only by GuocoLand’s Lentor Modern, which sold 508 units or 84 per cent of the suburban project’s 605 units at launch in September 2022.

Business as usual in Singapore’s hustling, bustling housing market? Except that the market is not entirely on an “as you were” footing. The government has stepped up measures to cool prices and demand in three interventions since December 2021, as prices continue to rise. 

Tight lending limits are stuck in place. Today’s higher mortgage rates and tough borrowing criteria are a high hurdle that potential buyers have to clear.