The resilience of the market for public housing resales for potential buyers who did not succeed in February’s Build-To-Order (BTO) exercise to look at alternatives, as well as home owners putting up flats for sale as a result of a spike in prices.
The results of the BTO exercise in February as well as the launch of Sale of Balance Flats were revealed in the first week of March and during the last few days of March.
SBF launches permit applicants to apply for flats sold in earlier BTO sales.
If they’re unable to locate a suitable home in the short term, and have tried both methods and failed to get an apartment to live in the meantime, many might consider resale homes. This could lead to an increase in the prices of resales and volumes.
The absence of BTO launches, as well as an increase in supply led to more units being resold.
Greater demands for bigger units could be a contributing factor.
Housing Board resale prices rose for the eighth time in May. The price increased only 0.3 percent, and more flats were sold.
According to data flashed out by real estate websites Singapore Real Estate Exchange and 99.co, on the 5th of June, the increase was less than 0.9 percent in April. The year-over-year rate rose by 6 per cent.
A total of 2,513 HDB units were sold in May, which is an increase of 5.3 per cent increase from the 2,387 units resold in April.
In May, 74 flats sold for over $1 million were registered. This is identical to the record set in January.
In the month of May, 176 executive flats were resold. It is the most amount of resales in the month since September 2022, when the 15-month time-frame for homeowners to purchase HDB resale apartments was introduced.
40% of the 327 million dollar sale deals between January and may 2024 included five-room apartments. This indicates a need for larger homes.
The 74 million dollar resale apartments sold in May contained 33 units with five rooms. 22 executive flats are also on the market, along with 18 four-room flats. One three-room terraced apartment was also on offer.
The majority of the flats were located in mature estates such as Kallang/Whampoa Bukit Merah Toa Payoh, and Queenstown and six of them were located in towns that were not mature, such as Jurong East, Bukit Batok, Yishun and Hougang.
The 74 flats that were sold as resales comprised 2,9% of the resale transactions in May. This is exactly the same as April.
The higher number of flats sold at least $1 million to the possibility of buyers seeking homes that could be in demand in the future. These flats do not come with resale limitations.
Five-room, 106 sqm flat that is located between the 37th and 39th storeys at Pinnacle@Duxton in Cantonment Road changed hands for $1,515,000. This makes it the most expensive HDB resale flat in May.
The demand for resale apartments is expected to continue to grow, with former home owners who are looking to the market to sell their homes, as well as buyers with urgent housing requirements.
People who would prefer centralised areas, but don’t wish to be subject to the stricter requirements of the brand new system for classification could be a factor in the demand for flats for resales.
All BTO flats to be launched by the second quarter of 2024 will be classified into three categories namely Standard, Plus, or Prime in accordance with the attractiveness of their area of. Prime flats, which are situated in prime places close to the city central area, will have the tightest limitations.
There is a possibility of a moderated trend in the HDB marketplace for resales in June since the BTO exercise then will be the final step before the roll-out of the new classification system, and because of the school holidays.
Some homebuyers may be interested to look into the BTO flat options that were announced in June. They may wish to take advantage before the end of October BTO exercise to take advantage of the current classification.