http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...jects-20140319
Prices dip for housing units at uncompleted projects
Published on Mar 19, 2014
By Melissa Tan
SELLING prices at some uncompleted projects have fallen over the past three months - by anything from just over 1 per cent to 7 per cent - possibly as developers aim to clear units that have been on the market for some time.
Urban Vista in Tanah Merah, The Glades nearby and D'Leedon have all recorded declines in their median prices from December to last month, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) figures show.
Consultants said developers could be facing pressure to give discounts due to stiff competition from newer launches. "But most of the projects will still try to maintain prices as much as possible," R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng said.
OrangeTee research head Christine Li noted that a median price drop does not necessarily mean that developers reduced prices for the whole project.
Analysts added that it could also mean developers sold more bigger units, which draw lower prices on a per square foot (psf) basis, than in previous months.
The URA private property price index could still hold steady in the first quarter or even rise slightly from the preceding quarter, Ms Li added.
At Urban Vista in Tanah Merah Kechil Link, waiting two months could save a buyer over $50,000. For instance, an 850 sq ft unit sold for $1,131,953 on Dec 3, but a similar unit on a higher floor in the same block sold for $1,080,000 on Feb 27, according to caveats lodged with the URA.
The median price for new sales at the project slid from $1,345 psf in December to $1,291 psf in January, down 4 per cent.
The project by Fragrance Group and World Class Land sold eight units in December and seven in January. The median price sank a further 2.4 per cent to $1,259 psf in February, a month when 22 homes were sold. This brought the cumulative sales to 554 out of 582 units at the end of last month - a take-up rate of 95 per cent.
Many more units are unsold across the road at Keppel Land's The Glades. The 726-unit project in Bedok Rise, launched in September last year, had moved 140 units by the end of last month.
The median price for new home sales at the project declined by 6.2 per cent from $1,477 psf in December to $1,385 psf in January. It slipped another 1.7 per cent to $1,362 psf in February, while notching up 14 sales that month.
Prices at The Glades are slightly higher than those at Urban Vista, partly because its developer paid more for the land.
CapitaLand's D'Leedon also saw median prices fall by 7.4 per cent for new sales, from $1,512 psf in December to $1,400 psf in January. There was a further dip of 1 per cent to $1,386 psf last month.
The project at Leedon Heights moved between two and five units in each of those three months. It had sold 1,442 of its 1,715 units by the end of last month.
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