Only 7,153 new private homes sold in 2022, 45 percent y-o-y decline
It's also the lowest number of new homes sold in a year since 2008.
In 2022, new home sales in Singapore totals up to 7,153 units.
Including the transactions concluded in December 2022, the total new private home sales (excluding ECs) for the year is 7,153 units, a 45.1 percent year-on-year decrease from the 13,027 units that were sold in 2021.
This year’s new home sales are the lowest since 2008 when 4,264 units were sold. Knight Frank observes that the full-year total is lower than its original forecast of 8,000 to 9,000 private residential units for 2022.
It has attributed the year-over-year drop in new home sales to a paucity of large launches in specific months, particularly at the beginning and towards the end of the year.
In the 1st quarter of 2022, developers were cautious to launch new residential projects in Singapore due to the cooling measures announced in December 2021.
However, in Q4, local property buyers started traveling overseas and going for holidays abroad after being restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic for 2 years.
Apart from significant debuts such as Piccadilly Grand (407 units) or Lentor Modern (605 units), most new releases in 2022 were generally smaller in scale or boutique-sized residential projects.
In 2022, developers released 4,528 new private homes, less than half the amount in 2021 and it was the lowest yearly volume recorded since URA made the data available.
Analysts have mentioned that foreign homebuyers purchased 502 new private residential units in 2022, accounting for 7 percent of total new private housing sales for the year.
In comparison, foreign purchasers purchased 540 new residential units in 2021, accounting for nearly 4 percent of the total.
Despite higher additional buyer’s stamp duty rates for foreigners, which were hiked from 20 percent to 30 percent in December 2021, the Singaporean property market has remained attractive to prospective buyers from overseas.
New launches to support 2023 sales
New home sales may remain subdued in the coming months. Between a bleak economic prognosis and the Chinese New Year seasonal lull, home buyers and property developers are expected to maintain a cautious attitude in 1Q2023.
Nonetheless, Sceneca Residence, a 268-unit private residential project in Tanah Merah Kechil Link is expected to boost January sales.
The project, the year’s 1st new launch, sold 160 units (approximately 60 percent) at an average price of $2,072 psf on its Jan 14 debut day.
One analyst said that this robust outcome should erase any questions about the market’s health and will set the tone for the next few launches in February and March 2023.
Meanwhile, according to Knight Frank, up to 12,000 new private homes are likely to be built this year, bringing some form of relief to the undersupply situation within the primary market and also offering more options for property purchasers.
Then again, economic worries, such as rising interest rates and layoffs, may dampen the market’s buoyant mood.
It anticipates that a total of 7,000 to 8,000 new private homes to be sold in 2023, with prices rising by 5 percent to 7 percent.
On the contrary, another analyst is more optimistic, predicting that, barring more economic deterioration, more purchasers will be brought back to the property market by future launches.