Singapore condo resale volume up 0.4% in September: SRX

RESALE volumes of non-landed private homes in Singapore rose 0.4 per cent month on month to about 1,286 units resold in September 2020, inching up to a fresh two-year high.

This is a marginal increase from the 1,281 units resold in August 2020, which had been the highest since May 2018.

According to flash figures released by real estate portal SRX Property on Tuesday, last month's volumes were up 62.8 per cent year on year and 64.5 per cent higher than the five-year average volumes for the month of September.

Nicholas Mak, ERA Realty's head of research and consultancy, noted that the Hungry Ghost Month ended on Sept 16 this year, covering about half of the August and September months.

Despite the belief that it is inauspicious to make major decisions such as purchasing real estate during the Hungry Ghost Month, resale volumes in September are now the highest since May 2018 based on SRX data, Mr Mak noted.

"One reason is that some homebuyers believe that the worst impact of the pandemic on Singapore is over and it is time to re-enter the market. As a result, the fear of losing out is greater than the fear of the hungry ghosts," he said.

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Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie, said investor exuberance for real estate properties seemed to have spilt over from the primary market to the secondary market. She said many owner-occupiers were thronging the resale market in search of value buys, especially for attractively priced, large-sized resale units.

Overall prices meanwhile, edged up 0.1 per cent month on month and year on year in September.

By region, resale prices in the core central region (CCR) were up 0.5 per cent on the month and up 0.8 per cent in the rest of central region (RCR) or city fringes. Resale prices in the outside of central region (OCR) dropped 0.5 per cent.

On a year-on-year basis, condo prices in the RCR and OCR rose 1 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively, while CCR prices fell by 4 per cent.

In terms of resale volume in September 2020, 56.4 per cent was from the OCR, 25.3 per cent from the RCR and 18.3 per cent from the CCR.

A unit at Le Nouvel Ardmore fetched the highest transacted price in the month at S$16.2 million. In the RCR, the highest transacted price was for a unit at Camelot By The Water resold for S$5.1 million. In the OCR, the highest transacted price was for a unit at The Trilinq resold for S$4.8 million.

SRX said the overall transaction over X-value (TOX) for September was zero, up S$3,000 from August 2020.

District 15 (East Coast, Marine Parade) and District 21 (Clementi Park, Upper Bukit Timah) posted the highest median TOX at positive S$10,000, while District 26 (Mandai, Upper Thomson) posted the lowest median TOX at negative S$13,800.

TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying (positive value) or underpaying (negative value) for a property based on SRX's computer-generated market value. The data includes only districts with more than 10 resale transactions.

On outlook, Mr Mak said the recently announced restrictions of the re-issue of option to purchase (OTP) for the sale unit to the same buyer may cause some buyers to explore the resale property market in the coming months.

"The practice of the re-issue of OTP is more common in the primary market and would attract buyers who need more time to sell their existing properties to avoid paying the additional buyer's stamp duty," he added.