Singapore Home Sales Surge In October

Developers sold 546 private non-landed homes in October, which marked a 60 per cent jump from 341 in September, the latest data by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed.

Sales of private homes by developers fell 30 per cent last month from a year earlier, as property cooling measures kept enthusiasm low in the island’s housing sector.

Developers have been holding back launches of private homes amid a soft property market.

Singapore introduced higher stamp duties and tighter lending since 2009 to cool homes prices.

However, last month’s sales were about 30 per cent lower than the 785 units moved in October 2014. This is followed by Thomson Impressions by Nanshan Group, which sold 80 units of the 150 units launched at a median price of $1,399 psf. The Criterion, which was the only new EC project launched in the month, took the second spot with 41 of 505 units launched taken at a median price of $805. This is a turnaround from August and September, when no new condominiums were launched amid the Hungry Ghost festival and Singapore’s general election.

She expects developers to sell 6,500-6,800 private home units in 2015, compared with about 7,300 past year.