Since the cooling measures announced a couple of weeks ago, HDB has seen a fall in the number of applicants for new flats, and the volume of transactions for resale flats has also fallen by about 25%.
my paper reported there were 3,225 applicants for the 1,408 units in the Yishun Riverwalk BTO development. While still oversubscribed, the ratio of 2:1 is the lowest in recent months. Last month, the BTO project in Jurong West attracted around 12 applicants for every unit available, while most recent launches were 5-6 times oversubscribed.
There were 10,968 applicants for the 1,624 flats offered under the Sale of Balance flats programme – about seven applicants for each unit. As expected, the response to the sale was enthusiastic, but it is still relatively muted compared to last year when there was 10 applicants to each unit.
Property company PropNex also told my paper that in the last week, the number of resale transactions fell to 170, from an average of 225 cases a week in recent months. PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail thinks that potential buyers are now taking a “wait-and-see” attitude, as many expect property prices to fall, or are simply digesting the new regulations.
Director of Dennis Wee Group, Chris Koh, told my paper that since HDB is offering another 22,000 new flats next year, it is only natural that applications for current projects have fallen in anticipation of the new launches.
Eric Cheng, CEO of ECG Property predicted that the resale market will become a buyers’ market. “In the next 12 months, (resale flat) transaction volume and resale prices will fall by 3 per cent to 7 per cent,” he said.