Developers' new sale units pegged at 12-14,000 in 2014

It'll be another tough year.

According to Knight Frank, they expect year 2014 to be a challenging year for the residential property market with the high number of homes to be completed. While the new property tax policies will only take effect starting 2014, we expect downward pressure on market sentiment in 2013 and reiterate our projection of 12,000 to 14,000 developers’ new sale units by year end.

The increased holding cost, lower yields and ample supply conditions will affect all property investors, holding companies, REITs and developers in terms of investment returns.

Meanwhile, the government is quite adamant in taming the property market and is likely to continue to release more supply this year. Further cooling measures can be expected if prices do not cool.

In addition, the anticipated rise in interest rates in 2015 will cause property investors to avert committing excessively in property investment. Investors may look further afield outside Singapore such as Iskandar and London.

Interest in Iskandar Region may pick up quite significantly following Singapore-Malaysia’s announcement of the Rapid Transit System with an estimated 90 minutes train ride to Kuala Lumpur.