Developers could be showing 'fatigue' with rise in collective sales

Collective sales announced last week included Hoi Hup Sunway's purchase of Brookvale Park, Macly Group's buy of Riviera Point, Low Keng Huat's acquisition of Cairnhill Mansion and CapitaLand's purchase of Pearl Bank Apartments.

Feb 20, 2018


A spate of collective sales, coupled with a rebound in the property market at the start of the year, may indicate that Singapore developers will be more cautious in adding to landbanks and about their pricing strategies, analysts say.

Collective apartment sales in the first two months of this year totalled over $3.1 billion, almost twice the $1.66 billion seen in the last peak of the collective sales market in 2007, Nomura analyst Min Chow Sai wrote in a note yesterday.

The sales appear to be cutting into the willingness of developers to pay premium prices after three of four deals transacted last week were sold at asking prices, he said.

There appears to be "fatigue" in the market, said DBS analysts Derek Tan and Rachel Tan in a note.

"This slowing momentum is positive, in our view, as it means lower upward pressure on final selling prices when these projects are launched."

Residential prices are expected to rise more quickly through 2018 as buyer sentiment improves with a stronger-than-expected economic growth outlook in Singapore, they said.

The city-state last week beat estimates to report a fourth-quarter real gross domestic product growth of 3.6 per cent.

City Developments, UOL Group and property broker Apac Realty are preferred stocks for DBS.

Mapletree Logistics Trust may be attractive to investors as it has no debt due for refinancing this year, wrote Nomura's Sai.

Collective sales announced last week included Hoi Hup Sunway's purchase of Brookvale Park for $530 million, Macly Group's buy of Riviera Point for $72 million, Low Keng Huat's acquisition of Cairnhill Mansion for $362 million and CapitaLand's purchase of Pearl Bank Apartments for $728 million.

BLOOMBERG