New home sales jump 69% yoy in May

But a lot of apartments remain unsold, as launched but unsold units remained high at 5,030 properties.

Savills says more than 10,000 new homes could be launched in 2H/2011.

Here’s more from Savills:

New home sales remain strong
New private home sales remained strong with 1,825 units sold in May. Despite slipping marginally by 5% month-on-month, sales in May have increased 69% year-on-year and exceeds last year’s monthly average of 1,503 units. Excluding executive condominiums, the volume of sales fell by 13% to 1,575 units month-on-month.

The bulk of the sales or 66% came from the Outside of Central Region, followed by the Rest of Central Region with 25% and Core Central Region with 9%.

The pace of sales improved in May with nine out of 11 new launches recording a take-up rate of more than 78% for their newly launched units. However, the number of launched but unsold units remained high in May at 5,030.

We expect the current sales momentum to moderate in the coming months. Anecdotally, private home sales have already slowed in June with more buyers choosing to wait on the sidelines for further project launches from the 2H/2011 government land sales programme. Talks on increasing the income limit for first time HDB home buyers may also filter some demand away from the mass market home segment.

More buyers turning to resale homes
More buyers are turning to resale homes as prices of new homes are still high. The number of resales as a percentage of all private home sales, including ECs, have been increasing steadily from 46% in February to 60% in May, the highest level seen this year. Conversely, the number of new sales hit a low this year at 31% in May.

Prices of non-landed resale homes hit a new high in May at an average unit price of S$1,096 per sq ft. This is a 4% month-on-month and a 16% year-on-year increase.

Mass market resale home prices increased the most by 5% quarter on quarter to S$815 per sq ft in Q2, followed by mid-tier homes, which rose 4% quarter on quarter to S$1,069 per sq ft. Resale prices of high-end homes held steady at S$1,612 per sq ft, rising by a mere 1% quarter-on-quarter.

More than 10,000 new homes could be launched in 2H/2011
This year could see a bulge of new home supply as more than 10,000 new private homes could be released in the second half of this year. Most of these units are from the 2H/2010 and 1H/2011 government land sales, of which more than 90% cater to the mass market segment.

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