New private home sales bounce back in September after seasonal lull

Developers' sales regained some footing in September after clocking their lowest-ever sales figure for the month of August since official records were made available by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 2007.

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Based on data released on Oct 15, a total of 401 new private homes, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), were sold in September.

This represented a 90 per cent recovery from the 211 units recorded in the prior month, as well as an 84.8 per cent increase from the year-ago period.

Singapore Realtors Inc's head of research and data analytics Mohan Sandrasegeran attributed September's uptick to renewed market activity and growing buyer confidence following the conclusion of August's seasonally quiet Ghost Month period.

"The post-festival period often sees a revival in sentiment, allowing developers to capitalise on renewed interest and launch fresh projects to meet demand," he said.

Including ECs, new home sales rose 75.3 per cent to 433 units versus 247 units sold in August, and were 29.3 per cent up from the 335 units sold the year before.

Within the EC segment, developers sold 32 new units for September, down from 36 the month before.

Huttons Asia's senior director of data analytics Lee Sze Teck said this was because buyers were "hampered by the limited choices in the market" as the number of unsold EC units plunged to a record low of 171.

A total of 437 new private home units were released for sale in September across existing projects.

This was 60.7 per cent higher than the 272 units launched in the prior month.