Category Archives: HDB

New home sales shoot up in May

Posted on 17 Jun 2014 | Comments Off on New home sales shoot up in May

New private home sales in Singapore almost doubled month-on-month in May to record 1,470 units, according to latest data by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

Including executive condominiums (ECs), the number of units sold increased to 1,528 units last month from just 797 in April.

However, compared to May 2013 when 1,912 units including ECs were sold, the year-on-year decline is 20 percent.

Meanwhile, 1,790 new private homes were launched to buyers in May, approximately three times more than the 600 units released in the month before.

“The sudden flurry of launches could be due to developers timing their launches just before June school holidays and World Cup, when many buyers go on holidays, or get distracted by soccer matches, thus putting off their housing purchases,” revealed an OrangeTee report.

According to JLL, most of the buying activity took place in the Outside Central Region (OCR), accounting for 64 percent of sales, while the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and Core Central Region (CCR) accounted for 34 percent and two percent respectively.

The best-selling project last month was Coco Palms in the OCR, which sold 590 units at a median price of $1,018 psf. This was followed by Commonwealth Towers (RCR) which moved 275 homes at $1,626 psf, while The Panorama (OCR) found buyers for 100 units at $1,241 psf after developer Wheelock Properties relaunched the condominium at a discount.

Alice Tan, Head of Research at Knight Frank Singapore, said sales of units in the three developments constituted about 65.6 percent of total new sales volume.

Desmond Sim, Head, CBRE Research, Singapore, noted that there is an underlying demand for housing and newly launched projects with attractive attributes will sell.

“To date, some 3,963 new homes have been sold in the first five months of the year. In the absence of more mass market launches, we envisage that the whole year’s take-up will be in the region of 8,000-9,000 units,” said Sim.

Source : PropGuru

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Posted in HDB, Property Market / Real Estate

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Market largely unaffected by subletting caps

Posted on 17 Jun 2014 | Comments Off on Market largely unaffected by subletting caps

Six months after the start of quotas on subletting public flats to foreigners, the fear that they would hurt the rental market does not seem to have come true.

As of June, only about 1 per cent of Housing Board neighbourhoods and blocks have reached the quota limits, the HDB told The Straits Times.

This is about the same proportion initially affected when the quota kicked in this January.

Since then, only 8 per cent of the flats in a neighbourhood or 11 per cent of the flats in a block can be wholly sublet to permanent residents or foreigners. This does not apply to subletting of rooms.

HDB said the measure “is to prevent the formation of foreigner enclaves in HDB estates, and maintain the Singaporean character of our HDB heartland”.

Malaysians, however, are exempt from this restriction because of their cultural similarities.

Agents said the overall rental market has been cool, but is largely unaffected by the change.

More than 46,000 HDB flats have approval to be rented out wholly.

HDB rental prices fell from August, edging up in February and March but sliding thereafter. The median monthly rent for HDB flats was $2,300 last month.

“(The change) hasn’t really affected things much,” said Prop-Nex agent Calvin Ng, who has rented out several flats in the west since then. “So far, the cases I’ve handled are still within the quota.”

Dennis Wee Realty agent Aaron Lin said the bigger challenges in the rental market are the stricter foreign labour policy and excess supply of flats for rent.

He has come up against the quota only near MRT stations in the west, such as Clementi.

Property agents who focus on such plum areas – near MRT stations in the western part of Singapore – such as Dennis Wee Realty agent Jimmy Chua, have been hit. “Most of the blocks that are more popular near the MRT are affected,” he said.

He added that many flat-hunters are foreign students or fresh graduates from the nearby universities, some of whom had to settle for “second-choice” units.

Century21 chief executive officer Ku Swee Yong expects the quotas to bite in Jurong East, where two hospitals – with more than 4,000 health-care workers – will be completed in the next 12 months.

SLP Realty agent Jordan Lim, who specialises in renting, has shifted his focus away from Clementi as a result of the change.

The quotas are not an issue in areas such as the east, he said.

But landlords such as Mr James Tan, who is in his 40s, do not have that option. Since February, his flat in West Coast Road has been subject to the quota and can be sublet only to Singaporeans or Malaysians. But no such prospective tenants have contacted him.

“I’m totally unable to rent out my flat. I just have to wait and check every month,” he said.

The quota information, available on the HDB’s website, is updated on the first of every month and is valid for the whole month.

Source : ST Property

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Posted in HDB, Rental / Lease

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