Private home prices gain 2.7% in 2019
However, sales volume declined by 13.5% to only 19,150 units transacted in a single year
Avenue South Residence and One Pearl Bank – these were some popular new launch projects in 2019. In total, new home sales contributed to more than 9,900 units sold.
According to stats from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore, 2019 saw a rise of 12.7 percent of new private home sales (9,912 units sold) as compared to 2018 (8,795 units sold).
However, property prices overall grew at a much moderate pace as the private residential market in Singapore went 2 separate directions in 2019 – while home prices up by 2.7 percent, the number of transactions dipped by 13.5 percent.
As a reference point, price prices were up by 7.9% year-on-year in 2018 from 2017.
On the other hand, the number of private home transactions fell by 13.5 percent to 19,150 units transacted in 2019.
Resale transactions in 2019 have fallen significantly by 31 percent from 13,009 units transacted in 2018 to only 8,949 in 2019. This number accounts for 48 percent of the total private residential sales within the last year.
Analysts believe that the drop in numbers as compared to previous years was largely due to the effects of the property cooling measures imposed back in July 2018.
Despite the lackluster sentiments in the private residential market, analysts still feel that it’s not a call for concern yet.
It was added that the property market is still on an uptrend and moderate growth will ensure property prices remain sustainable in the long run.
Property consultancy firm, Cushman & Wakefield has also cautioned that market trends in 2020 are expected to be similar to the ones in 2019, given the fact that the fundamentals of the market remain largely unchanged.
Although property developers currently do not seem to be threatened by the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD), there will still be some concerns over the momentum of sales in 2020.
Furthermore, with the new threat of coronavirus or ‘Wuhan virus’ looms, it could possibly affect the private home sales if the virus starts to linger and deter potential homebuyers from visiting showflats.