Buyers sweep up almost 1,500 new homes in 3 weekend launches; Emerald of Katong 99% sold

A STAGGERING 1,480 new condominium units flew off the market over the weekend, with Emerald of Katong, Nava Grove, and executive condo project Novo Place chalking up the strongest launch sales the real estate trade has seen in the recent past.

The weekend tally could lift new home sales for November to over 2,200 units, their highest monthly level since March 2013, said Huttons Asia chief executive officer Mark Yip.

Developers’ sales over the Nov 16 weekend add to the 800 or so new homes sold in the two weeks before, when another three projects were marketed – Chuan Park, Union Square Residences and The Collective at One Sophia.

The latest new sales bring “a strong finish to what had been a relatively muted 2024 for developers’ sales”, said PropNex Realty CEO Ismail Gafoor.

Property developers in November unleashed an unprecedented line-up of six new projects collectively offering 3,551 homes, more than the 2,485 new units marketed in the first six months of the year and rushing out projects to catch a fresh wave of rising sentiment. 

Improving sentiment in the second half has “injected a little more urgency in the market”, noted Gafoor. A softening in private-home prices and lower interest rates may also have motivated buyers to return, he added.

While the bulk of the thousands of prospective buyers who had flocked to showflats over the last two weeks were Singaporean, Huttons Asia noted: “Observations on the ground revealed there were more prospective local and foreign buyers using a trust structure to buy a home for their children. This indicates a strong build-up of wealth for local buyers and influx of funds from overseas into Singapore.”

Residential property purchases held on trust incur an Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rate of 65 per cent, a notch higher than the 60 per cent ABSD payable by foreigners buying homes in the Republic.

Mogul.sg chief research officer Nicholas Mak said that the recent flurry of activity, coming after months of slow sales and few launches, could raise the spectre of another round of cooling measures.

If buying momentum continues at this pace, “the risk of government intervention would greatly increase”, he noted.

The resultant jump in sales in the fourth quarter is also expected to move the needle in the price index, added Mak, and reverse a recent decline. Overall residential prices slipped 0.7 per cent in the third quarter.

On whether the current rush was a sign of genuine demand returning to a market muted by successive rounds of cooling measures, some were more circumspect.

Singapore homebuyers “have been generally observed to tend to either sit on the fence or dive into the deep end”, said Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank.

Alan Cheong, executive director, research and consultancy at Savills Singapore, remarked: “It’s not Fomo (fear of missing out). It’s ‘fear of the uncertain future’.”

Much of the recent buying is being fuelled by anxious parents ploughing in funds to help their young working adult offspring buy a home, fearing that Singapore’s continually rising property prices will make housing unaffordable for them, said Cheong.

Emerald of Katong: Standout sales

Touted as the best-selling project of the year, Sim Lian’s Emerald of Katong clocked a take-up rate of 99 per cent on the first day alone, when bookings commenced on Saturday (Nov 16).

As at the end of the day on Saturday, 835 units of the 846-unit project in the popular East Coast region had been snapped up, at starting prices ranging from S$1.2 million for a 484 square feet one-bedroom-plus-study to S$3.5 million for five-bedroom luxe units sized from 1,475 sq ft.

The last time a new project launch saw a near-full take-up rate was in July 2022, when AMO Residences sold 98 per cent of its 372 units, according to PropNex.

“Besides the recovery in market sentiment, we believe the strong take-up rate was due to the developer choosing to maintain their pricing throughout the launch, with no adjustments in pricing despite the overwhelming interest,” said Gafoor.

Launch prices started at S$2,323 per square foot (psf), “fairly competitive for a city-fringe project in District 15”, he added.

ERA Singapore CEO Marcus Chu noted that the median price for new projects in the Rest of Central Region is about S$2,955 psf. He added that, next door, Tembusu Grand is now over 82 per cent sold with prices averaging S$2,458 psf.

Before sales bookings started on Nov 16, agents had collected more than 3,600 cheques from interested buyers for the 846 units offered at Emerald of Katong. The 916-unit Chuan Park near the Serangoon Gardens estate launched by Kingsford Development last weekend was similarly met with overwhelming interest, with some 2,800 cheques collected.

Emerald of Katong is coming up on a site in Jalan Tembusu that was acquired for S$828.8 million or S$1,069 psf per plot ratio in July last year at a government land sale tender. Sim Lian had pipped the only other bidder, a City Developments Ltd and Frasers Property tie-up, by a mere S$800,000.

The robust new sales could in part have been fuelled by Fomo among buyers, noted Huttons Asia’s Yip. Some of those who missed out on picking up a unit at Chuan Park bought units in Emerald of Katong, he said.

Interest in the Katong project spilled over to other new condos coming up in the East Coast area that were launched last year. The PropNex sales team reported that 60 units were sold at The Continuum, and 23 units sold at Tembusu Grand over the weekend.

Nava Grove: Competitive premium product

As at Sunday, 359 or 65 per cent of Nava Grove’s 552 units have been sold, at an average price of S$2,448 psf, said developers MCL Land and Sinar Mas Land.

PropNex’s Gafoor said Nava Grove’s performance exceeded expectations. “The strong take-up rate is impressive, despite competition from nearby Pinetree Hill and other large projects that were recently launched like Chuan Park and Emerald of Katong.”

“We note that Nava Grove’s take-up rate was double that of Pinetree Hill during its launch weekend,” he added.

UOL’s nearby Pinetree Hill project in Ulu Pandan, that was put on the market last July, sold nearly 29 per cent (150 units) of its 520 units at an average price of S$2,460 psf at launch. 

Huttons Asia’s Yip added that Nava Grove’s starting price of just under S$1.4 million for a two-bedroom unit was “probably the best entry price for a prime city-fringe address”. Prices went up to close to S$4 million for a 1,722 sq ft five-bedroom unit with private lift.

Still, “around 83 per cent of the two-bedroom and 71 per cent of the three-bedroom units were sold”, said Yip. “Many buyers went for the premium units, showing a willingness to pay more to stay in this private residential enclave.”  

Novo Place: Rare EC project near MRT

Hoi Hup Realty-Sunway Development’s 504-unit Novo Place EC in Tengah saw a take-up rate of 57 per cent – or 286 units – over the weekend. The average price of units sold was S$1,654 psf, setting a new benchmark for EC projects, PropNex noted.

The EC launch – only the second EC project to be sold this year – is one of the few located within a five-minute walk to an MRT station, property pundits noted.

Huttons Asia’s Yip said that Novo Place’s take-up rate would have been higher if not for the 30 per cent quota – or 151 units – for second-timers which was fully subscribed.