Pickup in bungalow transactions in Singapore

Transactions of landed homes in established landed ­housing ­estates have picked up ­rec­ently, based on ­caveats lodged between Aug 1 and 8. A bungalow built in 1995 and ­sitting on a 14,305 sq ft, freehold site on Wilkinson Road, off Mount­batten Road, changed hands for S$17.19 million (RM54.1 million), or S$1,202 psf, according to a ­caveat lodged with URA ­Realis on Aug 8.

At Oriole Crescent, a ­bungalow completed in 1990 and newly reno­vated, was sold for S$16.7 million (S$1,623 psf) on Aug 7. It sits on a freehold land area of 10,290 sq ft and is located within the Raffles Park Good Class Bungalow area in prime District 11.

Over at One Tree Hill, an est­ab­lish­ed housing estate in prime  District 10, accessible via Grange Road, ­Tomlinson Road and Paterson Road, a freehold semi-detached house ­sitting on a 4,521 sq ft site fetched S$9.28 million (S$2,053 psf), according to a caveat lodged on Aug 7.

In the Lucky Heights estate, a bungalow sitting on a freehold land area of 4,510 sq ft on Sennett Road, off Upper East Coast Road, changed hands for S$7.8 million (S$1,728 psf) on Aug 1. The house is believed to have been completed last year.

William Wong, founder and managing director of Realstar Premier Group, which focuses on the marketing of landed homes, says there was a 50% increase in the transaction volume of landed homes broker­ed by his agents in July and August, compared with the same ­period last year.

In 2016, Wong predicted that ­landed-home transactions would pick up by about 20% y-o-y in 2H2017. Based on the number of transactions so far this year, the growth is likely to surpass 20%.

“Pent-up demand is the main ­reason for the increase in ­transactions,” he says. Many buyers have been waiting for more than two years, and have resigned themselves to the fact that there is not going to be any change in the buyer’s stamp duty for the foreseeable future, Wong notes.

Average prices of landed homes have also come off by 15% to 20% compared with the peak in 2013. This has also enticed buyers back to the market, he adds.

This article first appeared in The Edge Property Singapore, a pullout of The Edge Singapore, on Aug 21, 2017.

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