New private home sales more than double in May, hit six-month high

Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers sold 1,356 units last month, up from 660 in April, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

This is also the highest number of sales since November, when developers sold 1,547 units excluding ECs during that month.

Most of these were in the Rest of Central Region (RCR), where 893 units were sold. There were 247 units sold for Outside Central Region (OCR), and in the Core Central Region (CCR), 216 units were sold. 

On a year-on-year basis, new sales excluding ECs increased 51.5 per cent from the 895 units sold in May last year. 

Developers launched 1,240 units in May — an increase from the 397 units launched the month before.

Ms Christine Sun, senior vice president of research and analytics at OrangeTee and Tie, said that the sales rebound did not come as a surprise as "sentiment typically recovers around two to six months after each round of cooling measures".

She added that "buyers started streaming back to the market as market confidence has improved since Singapore lifted most of the safe management measures in April".

Piccadilly Grand and Liv @ MB, two projects launched last month, "were very well received", said Ms Sun.

Sales at the two projects accounted for 40.9 per cent of the total sales in May.

Huttons Asia's senior director for research Lee Sze Teck said that it will be a "quiet month" in June with no major launches planned.

Mr Lee added that "with depleting unsold units, sales may go below 600 units".

Ms Sun added that buyers were keenly aware that the supply of new homes would remain limited in the coming months, adding that "most were prepared to purchase new homes at prices they deemed reasonable". CNA

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