14,500 new home sales expected in 2009

14,500 new home sales expected in 2009
Dec 15, 2009 - PropertyGuru.com.sg

Around 14,500 new homes are expected to be sold for the whole of this year, second only to the 2007 record of 14,811 units.

According to property consultancy firm CBRE, despite the high volume of sales, caveats lodged so far indicated that the total selling price paid in 2009 for new homes was 58 percent of that two years ago.

CBRE said that this was probably because of the dominance of mass market and mid-tier homes that were sold this year compared to 2007, when the public’s interest was directed to high-end homes.

The mid-tier segment’s strong take-up only filtered upwards to the prime segment in H2 2009.

Consequently, the volume of sales coming from mid-tier and mass market segments composed around 60 percent of the total quantum sales in 2009.

On the contrary, back in 2007, high-end projects located in the prime areas or Core Central Region composed more than 64 percent of the total quantum sales.

According to CBRE, it expects to see a wider spread of project launches from the mass market to prime locations and to the city fringe in the first half of 2010.

CBRE said that prices for the city fringe and mass market 99-year leasehold projects could possibly cross the $1,000 per sq ft barrier due to its proximity to the city centre and MRT stations.