Private home sales rebounded in July

Property developers sold 1,544 private residential units in July, a sharp increase from 1,078 in May and 847 in June.

“Consumers are obviously coming back in force to buy properties that are priced right,” said Mr. Mohamed Ismail, chief executive of PropNex, citing that the three top-selling developments had median sale prices of below $1,500 psf.

Terrene at Bukit Timah sold 162 units at a median price of $1,248 psf; 368 Thomson sold 157 units at $1,403 psf; while The Scala sold 400 units at a median price of $1,173 psf. Together, the three projects made up 46.6 percent of the total number of units sold.

“With a strengthening economy, the threshold for the price per square foot that buyers are willing to pay is slightly higher, hence a shift in the numbers to a larger proportion of the units sold coming in between $1,000 psf and $1,500 psf. In fact, only 13.2 percent of all the units sold fetched median prices below $1,000 psf, the lowest percentage for over three years,” added Mr. Ismail.

“Given this fact, and if developers continue to launch projects at affordable prices, the next four months should see an average of about 1,000 units sold,” he said. “The only exception might be August, which should still see at least 800 units being sold.”