New | Singapore home sales drop as ‘Hungry Ghost’ month deters buyers
Singapore home sales fell in August as developers marketed fewer projects in a month considered inauspicious by Chinese homebuyers.
Developers sold 473 units last month, compared with 1,091 in July, according to data released Thursday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That’s the lowest sales since February. The seventh month of the lunar calendar year, known as the Hungry Ghost Month, is a time homebuyers avoid property purchases.
Singapore’s government has been steadfast in its commitment to cool the housing market, maintaining real estate tightening measures rolled out since 2009 even as the city-state’s home prices dropped for an 11th quarter.
An index tracking private residential prices fell 0.4 per cent in the three months ended June 30 from the previous quarter, capping the longest series of quarterly losses since 1975 when prices were first published, according to data from the URA in July.
Among developers that marketed new projects was Wingcrown Investment Pte’s The Crest, which sold 11 of the 128 units offered, the data showed. KingsFord Property Development Pte sold 18 of 100 units marketed at its Kingsford Waterbay project.
