http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...62340,00.html?
Published September 9, 2010
No residential sales during Ghost Month auctions: Colliers
By LYNN KAN
AUCTION figures from Colliers International suggest buyers backed off during the Hungry Ghost Month this year.
Only three properties - none of them residential - sold at auction, fetching a total of $5.23 million.
In contrast, 14 transactions worth $25.92 million took place during the Ghost Month last year. And most of them - accounting for $18.98 million - were residential.
Some 44 residential properties were put up for sale during this year's Ghost Month. Colliers International's deputy managing director (Agency and Business Services) Grace Ng reckons that their failure to sell has less to do with cultural taboos and more to do with buyer savvy. 'It could be attributed to sellers' increased expectations and higher asking prices, leading to a longer period of marketing and negotiations as buyer resistance set in over time,' she said.
During this year's Ghost Month from Aug 10 to Sept 7, a total of 51 properties were put up for auction.
Only seven of them were mortgagee sales - the lowest number in 13 years and the lowest monthly tally this year, which Colliers said reflects a buoyant economy, high employment, low interest rates and a robust property market.
Auction sales so far this year total $114.65 million. And Colliers believes that the full-year figure will likely be close to last year's $168.4 million, despite the government recently announcing cooling measures that will have 'an impact on the property auction market in the short term'.
'Buyers will now be more careful when doing their sums based on the reduced 70 per cent loan to valuation in financing, while sellers will be more realistic when setting their asking price,' Ms Ng said.
But, the new measures will have little effect on people eyeing landed properties in Districts 9, 10 and 11 as they are mostly owner-occupiers buying to stay for the medium to long term. Said Ms Ng: 'These buyers have the tendency to take a lower percentage of financing. Most of them would finance their purchase using cash from the sale of their first property.'