Table [5] – Secondary Sale Market Performance – by DISTRICTS

Table [6] – Secondary Sale Market Performance – by PRICE RANGE

• Units at $4million range

The 12 units at the $4 million to $4.99 million price range include three [3] District 10 Ardmore II units (between $4.351m and $4.395m), three [3] units at the Marina Collection at Sentosa Cove (between $4.9m and $4.95m), and one unit each at District 9 Cairnhill Plaza and St Thomas Suites, District 10 The Grange and The Marbella, District 5 Pepys Hill and The Coast at Sentosa Cove.

• Units at $5million range

The 12 units at the $5 million to $5.99 million price range include three [3] units at District 10 The Grange (between $5.52m and $5.87m), and one unit each at the following projects including District 9 Ardmore II, District 10 Cuscaden Residences, D’Grove Villas, Regency Park and St Regis Residences, District 11 Sky@Eleven and District 4 Marina Collection.

• Units at $6million range

Only 3 units were transacted at above the $6m price level and they are: Helios Residences, The Grange and Ardmore II

(B.6) Fewer landed property transactions from January 2008 onwards

The sale figures in the landed property segment mirrored those of the non-landed property segment. In fact, the 71.25% drop in volume was astounding. In absolute numbers, the total sale of landed properties in the first two months of the year was only slightly more than a quarter of the volume in the same period of last year.

Table [7] – Performance of Landed Property

The table below shows the detailed breakdown of the sales by different house types and the comparison with last year’s performance.

Table [8] – Performance of Landed Property

• Performance of Good Class Bungalows

Last year, a total of 96 GCBs were transacted in the whole year. However, 75% or 59 units were sold in the first half of the year before the revelation of the housing problems in the US. The transaction volume trickled down to 16 units done in the third quarter; and only 4 units sold in the last quarter of the year.

So far in 2008, only three GCBs, among the 250-odd CGB listings on the market, were sold. And they were transacted at $774 psf, $801psf and $1,193 psf respectively.

Recently, a pair of recently completed Good Class Bungalows at 37 and 39 Leedon Road is being launched at an asking price of around $35 million apiece.

With the land size of 22,000 square feet and 21,000 sq ft, the psf prices of the two properties work out to be $1,591 psf and $1,667 psf respectively. However, a check revealed that in July 2007, a smaller GCB at Leedon Park was transacted at $13,880,000 or $914.33 psf. Nearby, a 29,309 sq ft GCB at District 10 Belmont Road was sold for $23.3 million or $795 psf in August last year; a 25,802 sq ft GCB at District 10 Swettenham Road was sold at $19 million.

It remains to be seen how potential buyers will react to the evaporation of the wealth effect following the sharp worldwide stock market correction in January 2008.

(B.7) Sub-sales may dominate secondary sale market again as projects near TOP

With many high profile residential projects getting closer to their Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) date, sub-sale activities are expected to hot up again, e.g. out of the 29 transactions recorded in Sentosa Cove from the first day of the year to the time of this report, 15 units or 52% of the transactions were sub-sale deals.

Many of the units bought in 2005 to 2007 period were leveraged on the Deferred Payment Scheme, before it was abolished in September 2007. Those buyers have up to the TOP date to secure financing if they need one. But, according to an earlier report in September 2007 by the Credit Bureau of Singapore (CBS), only four in ten loan applications were successful.

Given the current uncertainties, some of those who had taken advantage of the DP scheme may begin to review their options around five to six months ahead of TOP before the stampede begins.

It remains to be seen whether many sellers will come out in force to dispose of their units. If they do, the developers' pricing power will be clipped especially when the new projects are in nearby locations to those about to TOP. But it may be a different story altogether if sentiment in the high-end market picks up again.

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