SINGAPORE: Homebuyers snapped up some 1,150 new condominium units over the weekend with Lentor Central Residences claiming top spot and executive condo project Aurelle of Tampines following hot on its heels, while residential tower Aurea had a more muted showing.
Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), the weekend tally buoys home sales for the first three months of the year to more than 3,200 units, marking the highest first-quarter sales since 2021, estimated Mark Yip, chief executive officer of real estate agency Huttons Asia.
This is almost on a par with developers’ sales of 3,420 units last quarter.
Last November, property developers unleashed an unprecedented line-up of six new projects.
Then, Emerald of Katong, Nava Grove and Novo Place EC chalked up the strongest launch sales the real estate trade had seen in the recent past.
Huttons’ Yip explained that the strong demand seen in the past few months was bolstered by fundamentals.
These include a sharp rise in wealth and interest rate cuts.
But Mogul.sg chief research officer Nicholas Mak cautioned that such contrasting sales could spell trouble for other projects in the Core Central Region slated to be launched this year.
These numbers indicate that residential properties in the Outside Central Region are drawing more demand than those in the prime districts, he said.
The divergence shows that the private residential property market is turning into a “two-speed market with the high-end market segment stuck in second gear”, said Mak.
He further noted that the market is showing signs of being “frothy”. — The Straits Times/ANN
