View of high-end homes in Singapore.
Despite the positive sentiment in the residential market, the occupancy rate in the high-end residential segment hit an almost three-year low, falling marginally by 0.4 percentage points to 88.4 percent in the first quarter of 2018, reported Singapore Business Review citing OrangeTee & Tie Research and Consultancy.
Singapore’s residential market saw overall occupancy rate increase by 0.4 percentage points to 92.6 percent in Q1 2018 from 92.2 percent during the previous quarter.
More: Luxury Home Prices In Downtown Singapore Rising Faster Than Other High-End Districts: Report
The high occupancy rate was underpinned by growth in the mass market segment, which rose to a four-year high of 95.1 percent. Occupancy rate for mid-tier homes also grew to 91.7 percent.
OrangeTee & Tie research head Christine Sun considers the high occupancy rates as one of the indicators that private residential market sentiment continued to be buoyant during the period under review.
In fact, many projects, particularly those located in the Core Central Region, have increased prices of their unsold units this year – some by even double digits – as the supply of completed homes remains low and the existing stock of developers continues to diminish.
“Individual re-sellers have also seized the opportunity of increasing their asking prices in light of the more positive market sentiment fuelled by the recent collective sales frenzy,” said Sun.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg