Blossoms by the Park and Tembusu Grand will be available for sale from April 2023. Blossoms by the Park sold 205 units, or 74.5% of its 275 units, at a median price of S$2,427 per sq ft, while Tembusu Grand, with 636 units, sold 55.7% of its units at a median price of $2,463 per sq ft. These two projects accounted for 63.0% of the 887 units sold in April.
Tembusu Grand in District 15 was the best-selling project in terms of the number of units sold up to April 2023. With many people aspiring to live in the East, projects in District 15 tend to achieve good sales volumes. There is also a long-suppressed demand as the last project with a land area of over 200,000 sq ft was launched in 2004.
In percentage terms, Blossoms by the Park in Zone 5 is the best-selling project as of April 2023. There are several reasons for the outstanding sales: firstly, the number of buyer-owned properties, with Hopeden estimating that over 90% are first-time buyers and therefore unaffected by the cooling measures. The second is the scarcity of housing in the One Ways area, with Blossoms by the Park located on residential land around Biopolis and Fusionopolis; and the fact that the One Ways area is a great investment property, with rents in the area expected to be 20% higher than nearby non-landed developments such as Dover Parkview and Heritage View. The area is expected to command 20% higher rents than nearby non-landed projects such as Dover Parkview and Heritage View, and is likely to perform well in the face of limited supply.
The launch of these two projects boosted sales in the Other Central Region (RCR) to 70.8% in April 2023. 208 flats were sold in the Core Central Region (CCR) in April 2023, the highest level since August 2022, due to foreigners buying homes in almost double the number of homes, to 70. This is the highest number of purchases by foreigners since May 2022. Geopolitical tensions may lead to more foreigners buying properties in havens such as Singapore. Projects in the Core Central Region (CCR) accounted for more than half of the top 10 projects in April 2023.
The proportion of sales of S$2 million and above in April was similar to the level in March, at 46.4%.
Blossoms by the Park, the first project to launch after the cooling measures, sold more than 200 units on the day, accounting for nearly 75 per cent of its total. There were eight foreign buyers, four of whom were from China.
Similarly, The Continuum, the second launch after the cooling measures, also sold over 200 units on launch day. Overall, buyers for both projects were Singaporeans and permanent residents and for their first properties.
The next project to be launched in May is The Reserve Residences, an integrated transport hub (ITH) development in the heart of Bukit Timah. ITH is sought after by buyers for its convenience, rarity, capital appreciation and rentability. With its good attributes, The Reserve Residences is likely to appeal to both investors and owner-occupiers.
The cooling measures will result in fewer purchases by foreigners, but the impact on overall transaction volumes is expected to be minimal. Currently almost 95% of buyers are Singaporeans or permanent residents.
Foreigner interest in luxury properties has not dropped significantly following the cooling measures. Appointments for foreigners looking at luxury properties are still active and interest in residential properties in Singapore remains strong. Singapore's appeal goes beyond tax rates; a superior living environment and education system, stable government and currency, ease of doing business and a strong rule of law are some of the factors that attract them to Singapore. A significant number of foreigners purchase homes immediately after receiving their Permanent Resident Pass. Some of the debate for UHNWIs is whether the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) rate will rise further and whether they should buy now or wait. Home prices in the Core Central Region (CCR) are expected to remain stable.
While past cooling measures have led to a drop in quarterly transaction volumes, this is unlikely to happen in the second quarter of 2023. Hopeden understands that developers sold an estimated 1,200 condominiums in the first six weeks of the second quarter of 2023, close to the 1,256 units sold in the first quarter of 2023.
With The Reserve Residences at Green Foothills set to launch in May 2023, the developer is likely to sell between 1,500 and 1,600 units in the second quarter of 2023. This would bring the developer's total sales to close to 3,000 units in the first half of 2023. With the launch of more projects, the developer is expected to sell around 8,000 flats in 2023, representing a price increase of up to 5%.
