The residential sector saw a drop in investment sales due to less activity in the good class bungalow and collective sales markets. Despite the slow private residential investment sales, it is expected that the volumes will pick up by the middle of the year, with more possible activities within the en bloc market.
Singapore saw real estate investment sales fall 21 percent quarter-on-quarter and 52 percent year-on-year to $5.3 billion during the first quarter of 2019, reported Singapore Business Review citing a Colliers International research report.
The residential sector made up 32 percent of total investment sales for Q1 2019 at $1.7 billion. The figure is down 82 percent year-on-year as all sub-segments, including good class bungalows and collective sales witnessed declines.
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On a quarterly basis, residential investment sales jumped 48.2 percent on the back of healthy public land sales. The report noted that two residential Government Land Sales (GLS) sites at Kampong Java Road and Tampines Avenue 10 were among the top five biggest transactions in Q1 2019.
Despite the slow private residential investment sales, Colliers expects volumes to pick up by the middle of the year, possibly witnessing more activity within the en bloc sale market by the end of 2019 as sentiment improves.
Meanwhile, Colliers also revealed that four of the five biggest transactions were GLS deals.
“Public land sales booked a bumper quarter, surging 17-fold quarter-on-quarter and 32 percent year-on-year to $2.1 billion. They accounted for 40 percent of total investment sales in Q1 2019,” it added.
For the whole of 2019, Colliers expects total investment sales volume to hit $38 billion, which is on par with the level seen last year.
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Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
