Residential collective sales dominate with $5.83 billion worth of deals.
UPDATED: Property investment sales in Singapore achieved its best ever recorded first quarter, reaching a staggering $10.84 billion in Q1 2018, according to preliminary data from JLL, which has been tracking such deals since 1994.
The figure is up a significant 95.2 percent from the $5.55 billion recorded in the first three months of 2017.
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The residential sector accounted for the lion’s share of investment sales at $8.93 billion, or more than 80 percent of the quarter’s total investment sales value. JLL attributed this strong showing to the surge in land banking activity amid the property market recovery.
Excluding sites yielding more than 20 percent of gross floor area for commercial uses, developers scooped up 26 residential plots totalling $7.27 billion in the quarter.
Residential collective sales dominated with 17 deals amounting to $5.83 billion, while the sale of four land sites in state tenders contributed a further $1.24 billion.
Incidentally, the top five property investment deals in Q1 were all residential collective sales led by the freehold Pacific Mansion along River Valley Close, which was sold to a GuocoLand and Hong Leong Holdings joint venture for $980 million.
This was followed by the sale of Park West to SingHaiyi Group for $840.89 million, Pearl Bank Apartments to CapitaLand for $728 million, Goodluck Garden to Qingjian Group for $610 million and Brookvale Park to Hoi Hup Sunway for $530 million.
Tan Hong Boon, regional director for capital markets at JLL Singapore, noted that total proceeds from residential collective sales in the first quarter is already over 70 percent of the $8.19 billion from last year’s 28 deals.
“I will not be surprised if 2018 turns out to be another stellar year for the collective sales market,” he said.
Tay Huey Ying, head of research and consultancy at JLL Singapore, added: “We expect overall property investment sales activity to stay elevated, bolstered by developers’ continued land banking activities.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg