The value of collective sales for this year has surpassed the S$3 billion mark, strongly driven by the sale of smaller sites.
According to data from Credo Real Estate, about 49 sites were sold in 2011 for a total of S$3.04 billion — a significant increase from the 36 sites sold for S$1.77 billion last year.
Most of the sites went for below S$100 million, with only 12 sites sold for above the S$100 million mark. These sites, however, had a total value of S$1.71 billion, making up 56 percent of the total sales.
Ong Teck Hui, Head of Research and Consultancy at Credo Real Estate, noted that most of the 12 bigger sites are located in the prime to mid-prime districts.
“Some of the bigger developers have begun to look at such sites to avoid putting all their eggs in mass-market sites under the government land sales (GLS) programme,” he said.
“There are other developers who are frustrated with the often intense competition over the GLS sites and decide to secure en bloc sites instead.”
Going forward, market conditions are expected to be more challenging next year, due to the latest cooling measures and the anticipated economic slowdown.
Credo expects total sales for 2012 to be lower at approximately S$2 billion.
Source : PropertyGuru – 28 Dec 2011