Condo resale volumes continue decline in November; prices up 1.1%: SRX, 99.co

THE number of condominium resale units changing hands continued to fall in November, after registering a sharp decrease the month before, according to flash figures from SRX and 99.co on Tuesday (Dec 13).

This came as high interest rates and cooling measures weighed on buyer demand, particularly price-sensitive Housing & Development Board (HDB) upgraders, property analysts said. 

Condo resale volumes were down 9.4 per cent to around 1,124 units, compared with 1,240 units resold in October. Volumes were 30.4 per cent lower than a year ago and 4.1 per cent lower than the five-year average volumes for the month of November.

More than half (59.2 per cent) of resale transactions took place in the Outside Central Region (OCR), followed by 22.4 per cent from the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and 18.5 per cent from the Core Central Region (CCR).

Christine Sun, OrangeTee & Tie’s senior vice-president of research and analytics, said that some condo owners could also be keeping their units instead of selling due to the strong rental market, where rental income is high. 

Resale prices, meanwhile, continued to trend upwards, rising 1.1 per cent on the month and 10.8 per cent on the year.

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ERA Realty Network chief executive Marcus Chu said: “This could be because property sellers were still unwilling to lower prices, and buyers who did not exit the market have little choice but to agree to the higher prices.”

All regions experienced price climbs, with the CCR seeing the biggest increase at 2.7 per cent, followed by the RCR at 1.8 per cent and OCR at 0.1 per cent. Year on year, RCR, OCR and CCR prices were 12.2 per cent, 10.8 per cent and 7.8 per cent higher, respectively.

Huttons Asia chief executive Mark Yip said that the OCR appears to “feel the most heat from higher interest rates and cooling measures”, as demand for condos in this region tends to come from HDB upgraders. He added that prices in the OCR registered the smallest growth since June 2021. 

The highest transacted price for November was S$19.89 million for a unit at Marina One Residences. In the RCR, the most expensive condo resold was S$8.36 million for a MeyerHouse unit, while the OCR’s highest transacted resale price was S$3.6 million for a unit at Bedok Residences.

The overall median capital gain for resale condos for the month was S$333,500, up S$27,519 from October. District 21 (Clementi Park and Upper Bukit Timah) once again recorded the highest median capital gain at S$661,120, while District 9 (Orchard Road and River Valley) posted the lowest at S$93,000.

The overall median unlevered return for resale condos stood at 30.5 per cent in November, with District 28 (Seletar and Yio Chu Kang) registering the highest median unlevered returns at 51 per cent.

SRX and 99.co calculate the capital gains and returns of a condo resale unit by comparing the current transacted price with the previous transacted price of the same unit. Districts with fewer than 10 matching transactions are excluded from the ranking.