Housing supply will likely hold firm in the second half of this year as developers continue to be active in the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme.
According to Chia Siew Chuin, Director of Research & Advisory at Colliers International, an additional 28 to 30 new residential sites will likely be added to the confirmed and reserve lists, which could yield up to 14,000 homes.
“The government cannot afford to significantly decrease the supply of private residential land so long as housing prices remain high, and demand for both private housing units and development land remains robust.”
Meanwhile, Kim Eng analyst Wilson Liew predicts that around 6,000 to 6,500 homes could be rolled out under the confirmed and reserve lists respectively.
The figures, which are some 10 percent below the number of units offered in the H12012 GLS Programme, is intended to “partly offset the higher-than-expected actual number of units launched from previous rounds of GLS, as some developers have been pushing out smaller-than-normal units”.
However, Chua Chor Hoon, Head of Asia-Pacific Research at DTZ, feels that residential supply will be similar to previous levels, but added that some restrictions may be placed on the number of units per plot to regulate the proportion of shoe-box units.
In an earlier report, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that shoe-box units remain a concern, even though recent measures have worked to ease the public housing crunch.
Source : PropertyGuru – 5 Jun 2012