DEVELOPERS sold 278 private residential units in June 2023, a 73.2 per cent fall from May’s figures of 1,039 units, and fewer than the 488 units sold in the same period the year before.

This is the lowest number of private homes sold this year. The figures, which exclude executive condominiums (ECs), were released by Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday (Jul 17), based on its survey of licensed housing developers.

Including ECs, which are a public-private housing hybrid, developers sold 297 units, down from the 1,056 units sold in May, and below the 496 units sold in June 2022.

Only 31 units were launched last month, a 98.1 per cent drop from the 1,595 units launched in May, and lower than the 397 units launched over the same period a year ago.  

Christine Sun, senior vice-president of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, noted that new home sales for June were down because of a lack of “sizeable project launches”. 

She added that only one project was launched last month, the 17-unit Lavender Residence, which has sold eight units. 

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She said an estimated 3,463 new private homes were sold in the first half of this year, which is 18 per cent less than the 4,222 units sold in H1 2022.

Huttons Asia’s senior director of research, Lee Sze Teck, attributed the lower number of new homes sold in June to the school holidays, as well as a “reflection of the tight unsold supply in the market”. 

He observed that the number of foreigners purchasing residential properties continued to decline in June, following the latest property cooling measures announced in April. 

Total foreigners’ purchases fell to 13 units in June, which is 56.7 per cent lower than the 30 units sold in May and 80.6 per cent lower for April’s 67 units, based on URA’s Realis data. 

The number of local buyers for private homes also dipped in June to 228 units, from 857 units in May. Similarly, purchases made by Singapore permanent residents also declined from 105 units in May to 30 units in June.

The bulk of June’s transactions came from the rest of the central region (RCR), making up 53 per cent of total sales at 147 units sold, excluding ECs. Another 40 per cent of sales or 112 units came from the core central region (CCR), and the remaining 7 per cent or 19 units were in the outside central region (OCR).

“There appears to have been a narrowing of price gap for new sales between CCR and RCR since April, which has rendered CCR properties increasingly appealing for prospective buyers,” observed Eugene Lim, ERA Realty Network’s key executive officer. 

Based on ERA’s analysis, the price difference for new sales between CCR and RCR properties fell from 17.4 per cent in April to 11 per cent in June 2023.

ERA expects Singapore citizens and permanent residents to continue to drive the key demand for private residential properties. 

Analysts noted that marketing activities will pick up after the June school holidays, given that more projects are slated for launch.  

Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex Realty, said new private home sales will pick up strongly month-on-month in July from several back-to-back launches – The Myst, Lentor Hills Residences, Grand Dunman and Pinetree Hill. The four projects collectively sold more than 1,100 units at their respective launches in the Jul 8 and Jul 15 weekends.

Wong added that sales momentum is also likely to spill over into August, particularly in the EC segment, with Altura EC in Bukit Batok coming on the market.

The Hungry Ghost Festival, however, runs from Aug 16 to Sep 14 this year. This period is when some people avoid buying or renovating their homes.

For the rest of the year, Nicholas Mak, chief research officer from Mogul.sg, said 10 residential projects with a total of 2,350 units are going to be launched. He expects homebuyers to “become increasingly selective as they will have ample choices of new residential developments from which to choose”.

Meanwhile, Knight Frank’s head of research Leonard Tay said demand for new private homes in the remaining months of 2023 will continue to be underpinned by homebuyers purchasing for their own occupation, as household balance sheets remain healthy. He said many buyers are backed by recycled capital from earlier generations of Singaporeans who benefited from asset appreciation 

However, Tay noted that homebuyers are faced with sticky high interest rates and the possibility of a technical recession. He expects total new private home sales to be around 7,000 to 8,000 units for the year.