Singapore home sales last month slumped 48 percent from a year ago as lending curbs stemmed purchases.
Developers sold 382 units last month compared with 739 units in the same period a year earlier, according to data released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Singapore’s annual home sales dropped to a six-year low last year, as property policies hurt demand. Sales fell by half to 7,316 units last year from 2013, the lowest since 2008, according to data from the authority.
“The remainder of the year will also see low sales volumes,” Nicholas Mak, an executive director at SLP International Property Consultants in Singapore, said by phone.
Transactions “could end near 2014’s new home sales levels unless some of the curbs are relaxed.,” Mak said.
The government began introducing residential property curbs in 2009, as low interest rates and demand from foreign buyers raised concerns that the property market was overheating. Prices surged 40 percent in the five years to 2013 to a record, prompting some of the strictest measures, including a cap on debt repayment costs at 60 percent of a borrower’s monthly income, higher stamp duties on home purchases and an increase in real estate taxes.
Residential prices fell 4 percent last year, Urban Redevelopment Authority data showed.
Among developers that began offering projects last month was Sims Urban Oasis Pte, which sold 112 of 200 units at its development in the city’s east, its data showed.
The number of units marketed last month dropped by about half compared with January, Mak said.
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