Condo resale prices rise 9.4% in June amidst limited home supply in suburbs

But volumes are lower by 17% as more potential buyers opt to travel overseas instead of shop for new homes.

Condo resale prices continued to rise, logging a 9.4% increase in June compared to the same month in 2021.

This, despite resale volumes falling by 17.1%, according to data released by 99-SRX.
 
Prices in the core central region (CCR), rest of central region (RCR), and outside of the central region (OCR) all rose during the same period of comparison: CCR by 5.6%, RCR by 8.8%, and OCR by 10.9% year-on-year. Compared to May, prices inched up by 0.8% in CCR, 1.9% in RCR, and 0.3% in OCR.
 
Lack of supply pushed up prices, particularly in the OCR region, said Christine Sun, senior vice president of research & analytics at OrangeTee & Tie.
 
“Due to a lack of supply of new homes in the suburbs and increasing HDB upgrader demand, prices of condos in OCR rose the fastest over the past six months and past year,” Sun noted.

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Volume-wise, an estimated 1,250 units are resold in June 2022, which is 17.2% lower than the 1,510 units resold in May 2022, and 17.1% lower than in June 2021.
 
This may also be due to buyers choosing to travel overseas instead of shop for new homes, according to Mark Yip, CEO, Huttons Asia.
 
“The rising interest rates also sent some marginal buyers back to the drawing board as they reassess their budget,” Yip commented.
 
Volumes are still 27.3% higher than the 5-year average volumes for the month of June, 99-SRX noted in its report.
 
Most of the condos resold are in the OCR region, accounting for 59.7% of the total volumes. Almost a quarter or 24.5% of the volume is from RCR, with the remaining 15.7% from CCR.
 
The strong demand for condos in OCR could be attributable to HDB home upgraders on the hunt for reasonable per-square-foot pricing private condos, preferably near family, preferred schools or integrated malls/transport hubs, said Pow Ying Khuan, head of research at 99.co.
 
The higher PSF from OCR's new launches might also be pushing upgraders toward the resale market, Pow added.

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It is expected that the volume of condo resales could rise in July as more buyers return to the market.
 
“We anticipate that condo resale transactions could see an uptick in July as more buyers, including foreigners return to the market. In addition, some buyers may also want to get the deals done before the start of the Hungry Ghost month at the end of July,” said Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content, PropNex Realty.
 
The highest resold unit for the month is a condo at Nassim Park Residences in the CCR, which resold for S$12.88m.
 
In RCR, the highest transacted price is a unit at Silversea that resold for S$5.06m; whilst a unit at Archipelago that went for S$3.71m is OCR’s priciest resold unit for June.