POSSIBLE SHORTAGE
IN PRIVATE PROPERTY MARKET, SAY CONSULTANTS
After the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released data
on supply and demand in the private property market, several consultants are
now changing their views from an oversupply to a potential shortage, especially
in the Outside Central Region (OCR ).
While official figures show that developers launched and
sold a record number of private homes in Q1 2012, the URA noted that sales were
boosted by small units that developers have been pushing to keep lump-sum
prices affordable.
According to a report by The Business Times, the number of
private residential units launched in Q1 jumped 68.2 percent to 6,903 units.
Total sales rose 81.1 percent to 6,526 units, of which four-fifths or around
5,275 units came from the OCR , where
mass-market homes are located.
Ong Teck Hui, Executive Director of Credo Real Estate, said
that the number of private homes sold in the OCR
for Q1 was 50 percent of the 10,374 that developers’ sold in the same region
last year.
Meanwhile, the number of private homes that have yet to be
sold in uncompleted developments with planning approvals plunged to 36,552 in
Q1 from 39,184 in Q4, pushed down by a 15.8 percent decline in the OCR
to 16,928 units.
“What we need to watch out for is whether the build-up in
potential supply is too slow relative to market conditions especially in OCR ,”
he said.
Alan Cheong, Research Head at Savills Singapore ,
said that the sales of 6,526 units translate to 26,104 on an annualised basis.
“At this rate, initial fears of having 47,819 yet-to-be-sold
units (including those in projects without planning approvals) in the pipeline
causing an oversupply become passe, reversing market watchers' perception of a
gross oversupply to gross undersupply situation.”
Info courtesy -
PropertyGuru.com.sg
