Lush Dream Home

Sentosa Cove failed to deliver good home sales numbers on the back of a general slowdown in the luxury property sector.

According to consultants, the changing trend is due to attractive deals being offered in other areas, a lack of new launches on Sentosa and foreign buyers being deterred by the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD).

Alan Cheong, Research Head of Savills Singapore, noted that since the start of 2011, Sentosa Cove recorded just 30 landed home transactions compared to 2010’s 62.

Including non-landed homes, a total of 101 transactions were recorded last year, while 203 were seen in 2010.

“The lack of new launches doesn’t create activity and sometimes dampens market interest instead,” said Cheong. He added that buyer interest has been affected by other launches on the mainland.

“The sales at current launches have stalled because all the units with pro-sales attributes have been taken up.”

Good deals in prime districts 9, 10 and 11 might have also distracted potential buyers.

For instance, units at the 99-year leasehold d’Leedon condominium in Farrer Road are priced from S$1,450 psf to S$1,600 psf, while condos at Sentosa Cove are going at an average price of S$2,000 psf.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) data for Q1 shows that around 1,559 uncompleted private luxury homes were sold since last year, down from 2010’s 3,946 units.

Cheong stressed that the drop in sales at Sentosa Cove is “part of an islandwide phenomenon for high-end homes”, in addition to the effects of the recent cooling measures.

“(It) does not reflect the loss of popularity of the island as an investment destination,” he said.

Source : PropertyGuru – 2012 Jun 18