2,793 units were sold in March, nearly four times more than the 712 units snapped up in February, according to Knight Frank’s residential bulletin for Q1 2013. It also set a new record-high, surpassing the previous peak of 2,772 units in July 2009.
The overall new sales volume for the first quarter is now about 5,533 units, up 27 percent from Q4 last year with most of the sales coming from major launches in the Outside Central Region (OCR) such as Trilinq, D’Nest, Urban Vista, Bartley Ridge and Hillion Residences.
“While some prospective homebuyers remain sensitive to price levels with the higher ABSD and new tax policies; new launches with good location attributes and attractive price offers continue to draw genuine buyers especially in the mass market segment,” said Wendy Tang, Executive Director & Head of Residential Services at Knight Frank Singapore.
At the same time, Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) All Residential Property Price Index showed that overall private home prices marginally increased by 0.5 percent in Q1 2013 from the previous quarter’s 1.8 percent growth.
Meanwhile, Knight Frank APAC Research Director Nicholas Holt noted that home prices across most Asia Pacific (APAC) nations are expected to dip due to property cooling measures introduced by respective governments.
“While every market is different, we believe that prices will soften in Singapore by an average of five percent and Hong Kong by 10 percent. In China over the next 12 months, there is likely to continue to be price appreciation in Tier 1 cities, while we could see drops in some of the Tier two and three cities. Finally, Malaysia is likely to see a rebound in activity following the upcoming election.”
Source : PropGuru – 24 Apr 2013