Secondary Sales In Private Residential Sales Market Increased 22.6% Year-on-year After Two Consecutive Years Of Decrease
Savills Research shared that sales of new units in the private residential market jumped in Q4/2024. Transactional volume tripled quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and year-on-year (YoY). This is due to the uptick in the number of launched units in the last two quarters last year. On a YoY basis, new sales also tripled from the 1,092 units in Q4/2023.
New sales across all three market segments recorded substantial increases, with the largest growth from Rest of Central Region (RCR), which saw new sales surging from 391 units in Q3/2024 to 1,859 units in Q4/2024.
New sales in the Core Central Region (CCR) rebounded after six consecutive quarters of decline, more than doubling from 54 units in Q3/2024 to 137 units in Q4/2024. New sales in Outside of Central Region (OCR) almost doubled from 715 units in the third quarter to 1,424 units in the fourth quarter.
Nevertheless, for the whole of 2024, new sales mainly came from the OCR (52.2%), followed by the RCR at 42.0% and CCR at 5.8%. This could be due to the market seeing a spate of launches, as well as declining interest rates which could have motivated local homebuyers to enter the private residential market, particularly for the RCR and OCR.
Secondary sales, in the meantime, declined 4.7% QoQ in Q4/2024, a reversal from the two consecutive quarters of increase. This could be attributed to more homebuyers gravitating towards the new sales market given the surge in launches. Despite the QoQ contraction in Q4/2024, the secondary sales volume was still 23.8% higher than the same period a year ago.
Across the three market segments, only the RCR registered a QoQ increase of 1.9% in secondary sales. Both the CCR and OCR recorded quarterly declines of 3.3% and 8.8% respectively in the fourth quarter.
Despite the quarterly decline, increases were seen in secondary sales in all three segments on a YoY basis. For 2024, secondary sales were 22.6% higher than 2023. This increase came after two consecutive years of decrease. The OCR recorded the largest growth with transaction volume jumping 24.3% YoY, while that in RCR rose 22.5%. The CCR recorded a smaller increase of 17.9% YoY.
George Tan, Managing Director, Livethere Residential, Savills Singapore says, “Singapore's residential property market exhibited resilience and growth, rebounding from earlier market uncertainties. There is positive momentum observed especially in Q4 2024, driven by prominent new launches evident by the good take-up rate and improved buyer sentiment from Singapore citizens and permanent residents (PRs) for non-landed home purchases. With new launches offering compelling opportunities in 2025, we expect continued optimism in the market among this group of buyers as they explore upgrades, investment purchases, or locations that suit their lifestyle preferences.”
Alan Cheong, Executive Director, Research & Consultancy, Savills Singapore comments, “Once again, demand for private residential properties in 2025 is likely to be driven by the savings pool from the late baby boomers and early Gen-X groups and public flat (HDB) upgraders. With the 9.7% YoY price increase for resale public flats in 2024 versus the 3.9% increase for private residential property, we are seeing the gap between the two housing segments narrowing, making it easier for upgraders to cross the bridge to private housing.
We believe that HDB resale prices would continue to increase more than private residential property prices in 2025, and this could drive prices for the latter up by as much as 7% YoY. However, if this sharp increase triggers the implementation of an effective measure to cool the market early in the year, prices by year’s end may fall modestly by 1%. Ultimately, how prices may perform in 2025 will depend on whether there will be the imposition of effective cooling measure(s) and if so, when they are applied.”