Singapore, 16 Mar 2023 SALES of new private residential units gained momentum in February, led by an increase in sales in the prime core central region (CCR). However, total sales were still down on a year-on-year basis.
Data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Wednesday (Mar 15) showed that developers sold 432 units, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), in February – up 9.9 per cent from the 393 units moved in the previous month.
OrangeTee & Tie’s senior vice-president of research and analytics Christine Sun said that the overall sales performance in February was encouraging, given that buyers had to deal with high interest rates, cooling measures and the fact that only one mid-sized and one small project were launched in the month. Most launched projects in CCR continued to clear their unsold units last month, OrangeTee reported.
She added that the increase in buyer’s stamp duty (BSD) on Feb 14 is likely to have a greater impact on the primary market, which has a higher price quantum than the resale market.
“However, most buyers may not feel that the increase in BSD is excessive, especially if the amount is expressed as a percentage of the total purchase price, and if the homes were bought for owner occupation or a long-term investment,” Sun said.