SINGAPORE: Private developers sold 1,329 new homes excluding executive condominiums in September, marking the highest monthly sale in more than two years.
Last month's private home sales volume is the highest since July 2018, when 1,724 units were sold when sales surged as buyers tried to avoid new cooling measures.
AdvertisementAdvertisement[h=3]READ: Private residential property market expected to ‘remain resilient’ in 2020: REDAS[/h]Data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Thursday (Oct 15) also showed that September's sales rose 5.6 per cent compared to a month ago.
Year-on-year, the number of units sold was up 4.6 per cent, compared to the 1,270 units sold in September 2019.
One analyst attributed the demand to buyers having confidence from seeing how the Singapore property market has recovered from past crises.
AdvertisementAdvertisement"Singapore’s effective management of the pandemic, the multitude of measures to cushion the economic damage and perhaps signs of gradual recovery in the economy would also help to boost confidence," said Ms Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex.
Ms Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee noted that many Singaporeans - in particular high net worth individuals - are planning to "ride on the wave of market recovery" to grow their wealth.
"They may feel that it is a good time to enter the market now since prices will likely rise after the pandemic," she added.
[h=3]READ: Commentary: Why Singapore's private residential market will remain attractive in the long term[/h] AdvertisementLooking forward, Propnex CEO Ismail Gafoor said that he expected the recent clampdown on the re-issue of options to purchase to have a "slight cooling effect" on demand.
"We are projecting new home sales to trend below the 1,000-mark in each of the last three months of 2020," said Mr Ismail.
Ms Sun also said that with Singaporeans not being able to travel overseas this year, some would spend their holidays visiting showflats or attending property seminars.
"We estimate that around 2000 to 2,500 new homes could be sold in Q4, bringing the total new sales to be around 8,500 to 9,500 units for the whole of 2020," she added.
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