New private home sales continued their strong momentum in February, buoyed by fresh launches. Data released by URA on March 17 shows that developers sold 1,575 units, excluding executive condos (ECs), last month. This marks a 45.4% surge from the 1,083 units sold in January.
On a y-o-y basis, February new home sales were over 10 times higher than the 153 units moved in February 2024. It is also the highest February developer sales figure in 13 years, since 2,417 units were moved in February 2012, says Tricia Song, CBRE’s head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia. Including ECs, new home sales totaled 1,604 units last month, up 45.3% from January.
Developers have now sold a total of 2,658 units (excluding ECs) since the start of the year. In comparison, developers took eight months to reach a similar figure last year, observes Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore.
The strong performance in February came on the back of two major launches in the Outside Central Region (OCR): The 1,193-unit ParkTown Residence in Tampines North and the 501-unit Elta on Clementi Avenue 1.
ParkTown Residence moved 1,041 units in February at a median price of $2,363 psf, making it the best-selling project for the month. The units sold translate to an 87% take-up rate at the integrated project, which is jointly developed by UOL Group and CapitaLand Development.
Elta was the second best-performing project, with 65.1% or 326 units sold by developers MCL Land and CSC Land Group at a median price of $2,538 psf. CBRE’s Song points out that both ParkTown Residence and Elta are located in suburban neighbourhoods which have not seen supply in at least the past five years, contributing to the projects’ robust performances.
Including the two projects, developers launched a total of 1,694 units for sale in February, a significant increase of 89% from the 896 units launched the month before. In addition, developers’ sales in the OCR totalled 1,452 units, accounting for a staggering 92% of total new private homes sold in February. This reflects the best monthly showing for the OCR in over nine years, since 1,523 units were sold in July 2015, says Wong Siew Ying, PropNex Realty’s head of research and content.
Sales in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) made up 98 or 6.2% of units sold in February. The top-selling RCR project was existing launch Pinetree Hill, which moved 22 units at a median price of $2,613 psf.
In the Core Central Region (CCR), only 25 units were sold, accounting for 1.6% of developers’ sales last month. The best-selling CCR project was 19 Nassim, which moved five units at a median price of $3,372 psf. Four units were also sold at One Bernam at a median price of $2,651 psf. The 351-unit One Bernam, which launched for sale in May 2021, is now fully sold.
In terms of buyer profile, Singapore citizens continued to make up the bulk of new private home buyers at 92.4%, followed by permanent residents at 6.9%, notes Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia. Foreigners accounted for 11 new home purchases, including the two most expensive transactions in February – the sale of two units at 32 Gilstead for $14.47 million and $14.61 million.
Record number of suburban homes sold for over $2 million
A total of 603 new private homes (including ECs) in the OCR were sold for at least $2 million in February, observes Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee Group. This makes it the highest number of new suburban homes sold at this price range in a single month since URA data first became available in 1995. “The previous record was in November 2024, with 512 new homes in the OCR sold for at least $2 million,” she adds.
Of the 603 OCR homes that transacted for at least $2 million, 596 are non-landed homes, comprising largely of units from ParkTown Residence (397 units), Elta (145 units) and Hillock Green (16 units).
PropNex’s Wong observes that the average unit prices of recent launches have “decoupled from the sub-market where these projects are located”. The way she sees it, while property prices generally follow a pecking order led by the CCR, followed by the RCR and then the OCR, recent launches indicate that may no longer always be the case.
As an example, Wong points out that The Collective at One Sophia, a CCR project which launched last November, has sold 73 units at an average unit price of $2,743 psf, based on URA data up until the end of February. “This is lower than the average transacted price of units sold at Union Square Residences ($3,175 psf) in the RCR, and only slightly higher than that of The Orie ($2,734 psf), also in the RCR,” she continues.
Number of units sold and average psf price at selected new launches from November 2024 till February 2025
Meanwhile, recent OCR launches such as Chuan Park, Elta and Bagnall Haus have registered average unit prices of $2,589 psf, $2,544 psf and $2,489 psf, respectively, surpassing RCR project Nava Grove, which logged an average unit price of $2,460 psf.
Wong believes the narrowing price gaps between regions could be due to various factors, including site-specific attributes of projects, amenity-driven pricing, demand by HDB upgraders, and the location of certain projects on the cusp of the CCR.
Wong predicts that prices could further converge in the coming months as new RCR projects located just off the CCR come to market, such as One Marina Gardens in Marina South and future developments on Zion Road residential sites.
Sustained momentum
The buoyant momentum in developers’ sales is expected to be sustained in March, supported by recent launches such as the 477-unit Lentor Central Residences, the 188-unit Aurea and the 760-unit Aurelle of Tampines EC. “As of mid-March, these projects have collectively sold over 1,150 units, promising a strong closing to the quarter,” comments Marchus Chu, CEO of ERA Singapore. In light of the robust first-quarter sales, ERA has revised its new private home sales projection for the whole of 2025 to between 8,500 and 9,000 units, up from its previous range of 7,000 to 8,000.
Huttons’ Lee is estimating developers sales (excluding ECs) to exceed 3,200 units for the first quarter of the year. This would make it the highest first-quarter sales since 2021, he adds.
Going into the second quarter, new launches lined up potentially include the 358-unit Bloomsbury Residences, the 937-unit One Marina Gardens, the 638-unit W Residences Singapore – Marina View and the 107-unit Arina East Residences. However, despite the strong momentum established at the start of the year, not all projects launched in the coming months may perform equally well, notes Knight Frank’s Tay. “Homebuyer demand will largely be dependent on the specific location and property attributes of each specific new project launch, with some projects doing better than others,” he says.
