New private home sales fall in worst Feb showing since 2008

Just 149 units sold with new launches held off due to CNY, softer economic conditions

- Grace Leong

With developers holding off new launches due to the Chinese New Year holiday, coupled with softer economic conditions and buyers' fatigue, new private home sales plummeted to their weakest February showing since 2008 when 174 new units were sold.

Just 149 units were sold in February, compared with 281 transacted in January. This is a 65.6 per cent drop from 433 a year ago.

While some buyers held off in the face of ample new launch options and in the hope of interest rate cuts later in 2024, sentiment was also hit by soft macroeconomic conditions, still-high financing costs, higher new home prices and property cooling measures, analysts said.

With developers prioritising sales from earlier released projects, the number of newly launched units plunged 89.2 per cent month on month to 45 units in February.

"This marks the lowest February launch tally since the Urban Redevelopment Authority began providing monthly project launch and sales data in June 2007," said Ms Chia Siew Chuin, JLL's head of residential research for Singapore.

Mogul.sg chief research officer Nicholas Mak noted that there was a backlog of residential projects slated for launch in 2024.