Hot off the 9.30 News: February home sales dropped to 4-month low

Private residential home sales in February continued to fall, reaching a four-month low.

Data released on Tuesday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that about 1,100 private homes were sold last month.

That is a 9% drop from the 1,209 units sold in January. Including Executive Condominiums, the total sales would have reached a total of 1,228.

The suburban region continues to see the most sales, with about 737 units sold while the city fringe areas sold about 223 units. The central region saw the least sales with 141 units sold.

Analysts attributed the low February sales figure to the typical Lunar New year lull and the Government property cooling measures.

And according to Channel News Asia, chalking up the best sales was Waterfront Isle at Bedok Reservoir Road, which sold 282 units at a median price of $997psf.

The best selling EC was the Austville Residences at Sengkang East Avenue, which sold 63 units at a median price of $721psf.

Executive condo Esparina Residences sold the cheapest unit at $503psf.

Meanwhile, the most expensive property sold in February was Tomlinson Heights at Tomlinson Road, where one unit was sold at $3,277psf.

1,710 units were launched in February, an increase of 500 units from the previous month. Analysts said the spike is due to more launches by property developers after the Lunar New Year.

Analysts also expect a month-to-month drop in private home sales of  about 10% for the next 2 months, which may be further exacerbated by the Earthquake/Tsunami aftermath in Japan. Full year sales forecast is expected to reach 14,000 units.

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