Tag Archives: Urban Redevelopment Authority

City fringe homes drive rental growth

Posted on 26 May 2014 | Comments Off on City fringe homes drive rental growth

Leasing demand in the private residential market remains healthy, according to a new Savills report today.

Rental volumes islandwide increased by 4 percent year-on-year, as the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed there were 13,077 leases of private residential homes, excluding executive condominiums, in Q1 2014.
37 percent (or 4,839 leases) of these were in the city fringe areas, higher than the 30.6 percent and 32.4 percent recorded in the Outside of Central Region (OCR) and Core Central Region (CCR) respectively.

Residential properties in the city fringe areas are probably more appealing as expatriates in Singapore try to balance tighter rental budgets with accessibility factors.

“These housing options likely fit better to their current budgets, yet still remain conveniently accessible from the city area. Tenants these days are also offered a wider variety of locations in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) to pick from, as there is an increasing number of newly completed developments,” the report explained.

Rental volumes by market segment, 2004–Q1/2014

The overall rental index of private residential properties continued to ease 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in Q1 2014.

The vacancy rate climbed to 6.6 percent from 6.2 percent in the previous quarter, which translated to 19,284 vacant units out of the current 293,283 private homes available throughout Singapore. The increase was mainly due to the spike in the East region, whereas vacancy rates either remained flat or declined in the other regions.

More pressure on residential rents is expected this year, especially in the high-end market, as expatriates’ housing allowances continue to be trimmed, as well as the increasing number of newly completed high-end projects.

However, the expected rise in Singapore’s economy should help to support the pace of growth in private residential leasing demand although rents could remain flat or soften due to increasing supply and the tighter rental budgets.

Alan Cheong, Senior Director of Savills Research, said, “A stalemate has developed wherein increasing new supply and tighter rental budgets face off against an improving economy.”

Source : PropertyGuru

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Posted in Rental / Lease

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More developers may cut prices to push units

Posted on 16 May 2014 | Comments Off on More developers may cut prices to push units

Buoyed by discounts offered by developers, private homes sales rebounded 55 percent to 745 units in April, following a slowdown in March when only 480 units were sold, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) figures.

Media reports said that property developers in Singapore have seen disappointing sale launches recently and to improve sales, some developers relaunched units at significant discounts to their initial launch prices.

The discounted relaunch prices, along with the reasonably priced new launches, helped to attract price-sensitive buyers.

CapitaLand’s Sky Habitat, for instance, released 80 new units in April, but ended up selling 130 units at an average price of $1,377 psf, or a discount of 13 percent from its initial launch price of $1,583 psf two years ago.

Despite the current weak buying sentiment, analysts believe that April’s sales indicated an underlying demand, provided prices are attractive.

“The developer’s strategy to reduce prices has obviously succeeded in drawing back buyers’ attention. The Sky Habitat story is a clear example that it is now a buyer’s market,” said Nicholas Mak, Research Head at SLP International.

Property consultants noted that the good response to the repricing could also see other developers offering discounts. To lure buyers, discounts should be about 10 to 15 percent below previous prices, they said.

Moreover, pushing sales through discounts helps developers manage cash flow, which is needed to fund ongoing construction costs, said CBRE research head Desmond Sim.

Moving forward, OrangeTee’s head of research and consultancy Christine Li expects total sales in May to exceed 1,000 units for the first time in 2014.

However, other consultants warned that although price discounts may stimulate the market, home buyers still have to face loan restrictions, which is their biggest drawback.

Source : PropertyGuru – 16 May 2014

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Posted in Developers, New Launches, Property Market / Real Estate

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