Singapore Home Sales in April More Than Double From Year Ago
Developers marketed more apartments last month, buoyed by indications of demand from homebuyers.
(Bloomberg) -- Singapore home sales more than doubled in April from a year earlier as homebuyer sentiment rallied after the government rolled back some property curbs following a three-year slide in prices.
Developers sold 1,555 units in April, compared with 750 units in the same period last year, according to data released Monday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. A total of 1,616 units were offered, higher than the 1,527 units in March, when Singapore notched the highest monthly home sales in four years.
Developers marketed more apartments last month, buoyed by indications of demand from homebuyers. The largest sales came from Seaside Residences east of the city, which sold 419 units of the 560 put up for sale, and Artra by the Tang Group, which sold all 126 units it placed on the market.
The government moved in March to relax a raft of measures to cool home prices -- steps it began implementing in 2009, with some of the strictest restrictions being imposed in 2013. Home prices fell 3 percent last year and have dropped for 14 straight quarters, the longest slide since the data were first published in 1975.
An index tracking private residential prices fell 0.4 percent in the three months ended March from the previous quarter, according to data from the authority on April 28. Home values have dropped 11.6 percent from their 2013 peak.
To contact the reporter on this story: Pooja Thakur in Singapore at pthakur@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Paul Panckhurst