Sales of new private homes slump to 4-year low in April

Lack of major new launches, buyers’ fatigue and high interest rates among the factors

- Grace Leong

New private home sales slumped to a four-year low in April after a strong rebound in March, due to a lack of major new launches and buyers' fatigue in the face of stillhigh interest rates, economic uncertainty and upcoming new home supply.

Developers' sales, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), plunged 58.1 per cent to 301 units in

April from 718 units in March, alongside a 68 per cent drop in the number of new units released for sale to just 278 in April, from 877 units in March.

Just three new small non-landed projects were launched in April - 32 Gilstead (14 units), The Hillshore (59 units) and The Hill@One-North (142 units).

Including ECs, new home sales fell by 57.7 per cent to 352 units in April from 832 in March.

Year on year, new private home sales fell by 66.2 per cent from 890 units in April 2023 to a four-year low for that month since 277 units were sold in April 2020, when lockdown measures were first implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This brings new private home sales for the first four months of 2024 to 1,465 units, down by 31.7 per cent from 2,146 units sold in the same period in 2023, real estate brokerage CBRE noted.