Home sales in Singapore jumped 5.6 percent in September, recording the highest in more than two years, media reports said. A total of 1329 units were sold during that period. This also marks an increase for the fifth consecutive month since the drop in sales recorded in April.
Resale volumes of non-landed private homes in Singapore also increased by 0.4 percent month-on-month to 1,286 units in September 2020. Last month, around 1,281 units were resold in the city-state.
During the second quarter, 1762 homes were sold in Singapore, while sales more than doubled to reach 3665 units in the third quarter. Sales during that period was also higher when compared to the third quarter of 2019. On the back of a strong performance, now industry experts are forecasting that prices of residential properties in the city-state could increase by 1.5 percent this year, having previously estimated declines of as much as 6 percent.
Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie told the media, “They may feel that it is a good time to enter the market since prices will likely rise after the pandemic and Singapore’s economy is positioned for a gradual recovery. The housing stock in many mega-launches is diminishing which may have stoked urgency in some buyers to ink a unit now.”
According to estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the overall price index for private residential properties rose by 0.8 percent in the third quarter, compared to the 0.3 percent rise in the second quarter.