Trade worries drag Singapore’s home sales down to 5-month low
The sluggish performance is set to continue, with one recent project selling fewer than 10 per cent of the apartments on offer at launch
Developer sales dropped for a third consecutive month, with just 311 units bought last month, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday.
A first-quarter survey of senior real-estate executives found that nearly 90 per cent viewed a global economic slowdown as a risk. Their next biggest concerns were job losses and a weakening domestic economy.
Singapore faces heightened risks of a recession due to export hits brought on by tariffs, Bloomberg Economics analyst Tamara Henderson said in a report earlier this month.
Authorities have adopted a more cautious approach, offering land that could yield 4,725 private housing units in the second half of the year – a 6 per cent drop from the first half.
Instead, they expanded the so-called reserve list, where land parcels are only triggered for tender if there is sufficient demand from developers.
The market’s sluggish performance is expected to persist into June, typically a slow month due to school holidays. One project in the city’s east sold fewer than 10 per cent of its 107 freehold units during its launch weekend earlier this month.