SINGAPORE — New private home sales retreated 12.6 per cent last month from the near four-year high in March but market momentum continues to be strong, with the total number of units sold in the first four months of the year topping 50 per cent of last year’s full-year volume.

Developers sold 1,555 homes in April, down from the 1,780 units they sold in March, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) data released yesterday showed.

However, last month’s new home sales were more than double the 750 units sold in April last year, as developers kept up launch momentum to take advantage of improved buyer sentiment.

From January to April, developers sold 4,696 homes, well over half of the 8,364 units disposed of in the whole of last year.

Besides new launches, buyers have also been drawn to projects previously launched amid the perception that the market is bottoming out.

PropNex Realty chief executive Ismail Gafoor said: “There is a trend of greater market activities and rebound in consumers’ confidence which have led to the greater number of sales, even in projects that have already been launched earlier and nearing Temporary Occupation Permit dates.”

Developers launched 1,616 homes last month, up 5.8 per cent from the 1,527 units that they put on the market in March.

The top-selling project was Seaside Residences in Siglap on a rare sea-front site, with developer Frasers Centrepoint selling 419 out of the 560 units launched at a median price of S$1,735 per sqf.

Artra in Alexandra next to Redhill MRT Station was also highly sought after, selling all of the 126 units launched at a median price of S$1,646 psf.

Other projects which did well were Parc Riviera in West Coast, where 90 units were sold at S$1,246 psf, and Commonwealth Towers, where 85 units were sold at a median S$1,655 psf, URA and PropNex data showed.

The recent easing of property market cooling measures and the healthy economic growth in the first quarter have lifted buyer sentiment.

Homeowners now only have to wait three years instead of four before selling their properties to avoid paying the Seller’s Stamp Duty, and the rate was reduced by four percentage points for each tier to 12 per cent (sold within first year), 8 per cent (more than one year and up to two years) and 4 per cent (more than two years and up to three years).

Meanwhile, both the manufacturing and services sectors drove the 2.5 per cent expansion in the Singapore economy in the first quarter from the same period a year ago, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry showed last month, beating the economists’ median forecast of 2.4 per cent growth in a Reuters poll.

Mr Ismail expects the trend of strong private housing demand to continue throughout the rest of the year, saying: “More consumers will come to the realisation that the market has bottomed out and prices are likely to inch upwards with the strong land bid prices we are currently witnessing. We are optimistic that the number of transactions will cross 10,000 units by the end of 2017. ”