Despite new price records, sales of new private residences and resale properties in Singapore increased last year, according to figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Friday (Jan 28).
Developers sold 13,027 private residential units in total in 2021, compared to 9,982 units the previous year.
In the secondary market, 19,962 resale properties were sold in 2018, compared to 10,729 in 2020.
Ms. Christine Sun, senior vice president of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, stated that resale transactions in 2021 were at their highest level since 2007, when 20,980 units were sold.
“Demand was strong across several project launches and resale developments last year, despite the rapidly rising costs,” she noted.
Mr. Mohan Sandrasegeran, research and content analyst at Ohmyhome, noted that a number of reasons contributed to the new private home sales segment’s strong performance.
“Pent-up demand, an improving economy, low interest rates, and vaccine optimism fueled demand and prices in 2021,” he said.
RECORD PROPERTY PRICES
Overall, prices of private residences climbed by 10.6% in 2021, accelerating from a 2.2 percent gain the previous year.
According to Ms Sun, this was the largest yearly gain since 2010, when private property prices rose 17.6%.
During the year, landed property prices increased by 13.3%, the largest increase since 2010, according to Ms Sun, while non-landed property prices increased by 9.8%.
Non-landed property prices increased in all three market groups last year, with the city fringe, or Rest of Central Region (RCR), seeing the largest increase of 16.3%. The suburbs, or Outside of Central Region (OCR), came in second with 8.8%, followed by the core districts, or Core Central Region (CCR), with 3.8 percent.
Private residential property prices increased by 5% in the fourth quarter, compared to a 1.1 percent gain the previous quarter. Ms Sun added that this was the greatest quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2010.
“Pandemic-fuelled demand coupled with a depleting housing supply drove property prices in Singapore to new records last year,” she said.
In the fourth quarter, landed property prices jumped by 3.9 percent, while non-landed home prices increased by 5.3 percent.
RENTALS
Last year, rents for individual dwellings rose by 9.9%, with an increase of 9.9% expected in 2021. In comparison, in 2020, there will be a 0.6 percent drop.
Rents increased by 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter, following a 1.8 percent increase the previous quarter.
“Rental demand is expected to increase this year.” Due to the new cooling measures, HDB flat owners who do not want to pay the ABSD (Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty) may choose to sell their flats first before purchasing a new house and renting a unit in the meanwhile.
“Moreover, now that there is more economic stability, employment in pandemic-affected industries may start to pick up this year,” Ms Sun said.
On December 16 of last year, Singapore announced a package of measures targeted at calming the property market. Higher ABSD rates and a tighter Total Debt Servicing Ratio are among them (TDSR).