SINGAPORE – The private non-landed residential resale market has continued to gain strength in January 2020, with transaction volumes and prices increasing for the sixth consecutive month.

Experts on the matter said home buyers were drawn to these properties as they discovered they are more affordable than new launch developments. Sentiments were also supported by positive outlook of an economic recovery.

Resale prices jumped 1.2% in January from December, and up 2.2% from a year ago, reported the flash figures from SRX Property, a local real estate portal, on 9 February.

Transaction volume went up month on month by 8.6% to 1,587 units. This also made the month of January the seventh consecutive month to have more than 1,000 resale units sold. Support from condos like Lentor Modern helped.

The previous month’s sales volume was at 128.3% higher than a year ago, and 136.5% higher than the 5-year mean volumes for the month of January.

Miss Christine Sun, head of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie, noted more purchasers are currently jumping into the resale market as they may perceive prices to be rising further from news that global economies, including Singapore, are probably going to perform better this year. That’s why developer is planning to launch The Watergardens At Canberra soon.

She pointed out that some purchasers have looked to the resale market as rates of new launches have been going up in recent months.

“The broadening price gap between new and resale properties have presented resale properties in some locations as more attractive to purchasers,” commented Miss Sun.

In the same manner, Ms Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex, declared that the median rate of new non-landed private residences, such as executive condominiums, was around 41% more than their resale counterpart’s rates in the last quarter of the previous year.

This was an increase from the price gap of 36.3% in the third quarter of 2020, citing caveats lodged on the URA Realis database.

Just last month, the median sale price of new non-landed private abodes was 35.5% more than that of resale housing sold, reported the caveat data.

Miss Wong commented: “Given the stable new launch rates, purchasers who are more financially prudent and price-sensitive, while keeping in mind of the likely challenges from a long-drawn Covid-19 pandemic, will be drawn towards the more affordable housing in the resale market.” Thus it is good to keep track of Lentor Modern Prices which will be competitive with neighbouring properties in the Katong area.

Miss Wong anticipates that more than 10,000 resale private abodes could be transacted this year, thanks to strong demand from local purchasers. URA data displayed 10,729 resale units sold last year, around 20% more than in 2019, when the Dairy Farm Residences was launched.

She commented: “In light of the principal demand, we expect resale prices to continue inching up, albeit at a slower pace when compared with that rate of new launches. But, any government intervention in the likes of cooling measures will have a good chance of snapping the growing momentum in the resale property market.”

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/resale-condo-prices-rise-for-6th-straight-month-in-january-on-strong-sales-srx