Private home sales in February showed no signs of slowing down, as fresh launches continued to drive strong momentum. According to data released by URA on March 17, developers sold 1,575 units last month (excluding executive condos), marking a 45.4% surge from January’s 1,083 units.
On a year-on-year basis, February new home sales were over 10 times higher than the 153 units sold in February 2024. This is also the highest February figure in 13 years, since 2,417 units were sold in February 2012, says Tricia Song, CBRE’s head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia. Including ECs, new home sales reached 1,604 units, up 45.3% from January.
Developers have now sold a total of 2,658 units (excluding ECs) since the start of the year. In comparison, it took them eight months to reach this figure last year, observes Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore.
February’s strong performance is credited to the launch of two major projects in the Outside Central Region (OCR): the 1,193-unit ParkTown Residence in Tampines North and the 501-unit Elta on Clementi Avenue 1. ParkTown Residence sold 1,041 units in February at a median price of $2,363 psf, making it the best-selling project for the month. The units sold translate to an 87% take-up rate at the integrated project, which is jointly developed by UOL Group and CapitaLand Development.
Elta was the second best-performing project, with 65.1% or 326 units sold by developers MCL Land and CSC Land Group at a median price of $2,538 psf. CBRE’s Song points out that both ParkTown Residence and Elta are located in suburban neighbourhoods which have not seen supply in at least the past five years, contributing to the projects’ robust performances.
Including the two projects, developers launched a total of 1,694 units for sale in February, a significant increase of 89% from the 896 units launched the month before. In addition, developers’ sales in the OCR totaled 1,452 units, accounting for a staggering 92% of total new private homes sold in February. This reflects the best monthly showing for the OCR in over nine years, since 1,523 units were sold in July 2015, says Wong Siew Ying, PropNex Realty’s head of research and content.
Sales in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) made up 98 or 6.2% of units sold in February. The top-selling RCR project was existing launch Pinetree Hill, which moved 22 units at a median price of $2,613 psf.
In the Core Central Region (CCR), only 25 units were sold, accounting for 1.6% of developers’ sales last month. The best-selling CCR project was 19 Nassim, which moved five units at a median price of $3,372 psf. Four units were also sold at One Bernam at a median price of $2,651 psf. The 351-unit One Bernam, which launched for sale in May 2021, is now fully sold.
In terms of buyer profile, Singapore citizens continued to make up the bulk of new private home buyers at 92.4%, followed by permanent residents at 6.9%, notes Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia. Foreigners accounted for 11 new home purchases, including the two most expensive transactions in February – the sale of two units at 32 Gilstead for $14.47 million and $14.61 million.
A total of 603 new private homes (including ECs) in the OCR were sold for at least $2 million in February, observes Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee Group. This is the highest number of new suburban homes sold at this price range in a single month since URA data first became available in 1995. “The previous record was in November 2024, with 512 new homes in the OCR sold for at least $2 million,” she adds.
Of the 603 OCR homes that transacted for at least $2 million, 596 are non-landed homes, comprising largely of units from ParkTown Residence (397 units), Elta (145 units) and Hillock Green (16 units).
Recent launches have shown that the average unit prices of projects have exceeded expectations. As an example, CBRE’s Song points out that The Collective at One Sophia, a CCR project which launched last November, has sold 73 units at an average unit price of $2,743 psf, based on URA data up until the end of February. “This is lower than the average transacted price of units sold at Union Square Residences ($3,175 psf) in the RCR, and only slightly higher than that of The Orie ($2,734 psf), also in the RCR,” she continues.
Meanwhile, recent OCR launches such as Chuan Park, Elta and Bagnall Haus have registered average unit prices of $2,589 psf, $2,544 psf and $2,489 psf, respectively, surpassing RCR project Nava Grove, which logged an average unit price of $2,460 psf. This could be due to various factors, including site-specific attributes of projects, amenity-driven pricing, demand by HDB upgraders, and the location of certain projects on the cusp of the CCR.
Going into the second quarter, new launches lined up potentially include the 358-unit Bloomsbury Residences, the 937-unit One Marina Gardens, the 638-unit W Residences Singapore – Marina View and the 107-unit Arina East Residences. However, despite the strong momentum established at the start of the year, not all projects launched in the coming months may perform equally well, notes Knight Frank’s Tay. “Homebuyer demand will largely be dependent on the specific location and property attributes of each specific new project launch, with some projects doing better than others,” he says.