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New private home sales surge as developers rush to roll out projects

Observers expect prices to remain sticky, and buyers, price-sensitive. Developers may slow pace of launches

Nisha Ramchandani

Published Mon, Apr 15, 2019 · 09:50 PM

URA

Singapore

A WAVE of new launches after the Chinese New Year lull boosted developers' sales in March, with 1,054 private homes having been sold. This was up from the 455 units moved in February and 47 per cent higher than in March last year.

Altogether, 1,812 private homes were launched in March. Of that number, 170 were in the core central region (CCR), 576 in the rest of the central region (RCR) and 1,066, outside the central region (OCR).

In comparison, 596 units were launched for sale in February, and 614 in March a year ago.

The figures, which exclude executive condominium (EC) units (a public-private housing hybrid), were released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday.

Nicholas Mak, executive director of consultancy ZACD Group, said: "After holding back their residential launches during the Chinese New Year holiday season, developers were rushing to launch their projects to avoid steep competition from other projects in the pipeline and the approaching additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) deadline of their individu…