Monthly Archives: April 2013

Private home sales in Q1 sets new record

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

Keppel Land unit wins bid for Kim Tian site

Keppel Land unit Harvestland Development has won the tender for a private residential site in Kim Tian Road with a top bid of S$550.3 million, Urban Redevelopment Authority data showed on Tuesday.

Harvestland’s bid translates to S$1,162.86 per sq ft per plot ratio, the highest ever for a pure residential site, beating the previous record of S$1,107 psf ppr for a site at Farrer Road, said Mr Lee Sze Teck, Senior Manager for Training, Research and Consultancy at DWG, before the tender was awarded.

The tender had attracted 11 bids at the close on April 18.

The centrally-located 99-year leasehold site was released under the Confirmed List of the Government Land Sales programme for the first half of this year. Near Tiong Bahru MRT Station, it sits on about 118,302 sq ft of land and has a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 473,213 sq ft.

Keppel Land said it would develop about 500 homes ranging from 500 sq ft to 1,350 sq ft in one- to four-bedroom configurations when awarded the site.

Source : Today – 24 Apr 2013