Home developers have failed to surpass the number of properties sold in March, selling only 1,555 private homes in April. Compared to the previous month's record of 1,780 units sold, April sales volume was down 12.6%.
These figures are based on the latest update by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which also revealed that the overall sales volume, including executive condominiums, ended the past month with 1,926 units sold.
On a yearly perspective, however, these numbers showed improvement. According to PropNex Realty, the total number of transactions in the first four months of the year has already exceeded 50% of that for the whole of 2016.
For the past year, developers found buyers for 12,408 units. This is in contrast to the 6,158 units sold in the first four months of the current year.
PropNex Realty Chief Executive Officer Ismail Gafoor said in a statement that there is a trend of greater market activities and rebound in consumers' confidence which has led to greater number of sales.
"This is being witnessed in the performances of Parc Riviera, Sol Acres EC and Commonwealth Towers, all three of which are in the top five performing projects of the month," Gafoor noted.
The best-selling project in the said month is the Seaside Residence, which filled in 419 of its units. ARTRA recorded a healthy sales volume of 126 units, whilst Sol Acres EC ended the month with 122 units sold. Parc Riviera managed to sell 90 units in the said month. Completing the top projects for April is Commonwealth Towers, which sold 85 units.
Gafoor expects the trend of strong demand to continue throughout 2017.
"More consumers will come to the realisation that the market has bottomed out and prices are likely to inch upwards with the strong land bid prices we are currently witnessing. We are optimistic that the number of transactions will cross the 15,000 mark (Including ECs) and 10,000 units (Excluding ECs) by the end of 2017," he explained, as reported.
