Strong start to 2025 new private home sales as new launches hit market

SINGAPORE - Two major new launches, The Orie in Toa Payoh and Bagnall Haus in Upper East Coast Road, coupled with lower mortgage rates, catalysed a sharp rebound in new private home sales in January.

New home sales, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), jumped more than fivefold to 1,083 units from just 203 units in December 2024, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Feb 17.

This is up 256 per cent from a year ago and represents the highest January sales volume since January 2021, when 1,633 units were sold.

Including ECs, new home sales surged 196 per cent to 1,104 units, from 373 units in December.

Thanks to the launch of the 777-unit The Orie and the 113-unit Bagnall Haus just before the Chinese New Year holidays, new launch activity jumped to 896 units in January, up from just 20 in December, and up 115 per cent from 417 units a year ago.

The two projects alone accounted for 69.7 per cent, or 755 units, of overall new home sales in January. No new EC units were launched in January.

With the moderation in interest rates, buying appetite returned in the fourth quarter of 2024, and developers are expected to push ahead with 12,000 to 14,000 new units in 2025, around twice the 6,647 units launched in 2024, Ms Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore and South-east Asia at CBRE, said.

Ms Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee Group, noted that 87.5 per cent of The Orie’s units were sold in January, on the back of pent-up demand as this is the first new Toa Payoh launch in nine years since Gem Residences in 2016.

“The area is also expected to benefit from enhanced amenities with the completion of the Toa Payoh Integrated Development by 2030,” she added.

In addition, existing launch One Bernam in Tanjong Pagar moved 99 units in mid-January after shaving prices by up to 27 per cent in a fire sale, analysts said.

The Tanjong Pagar condo’s monthly median price fell to $2,521 per sq ft (psf) in January, from $2,803 psf in December and $2,691 psf in November, said Mr Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore.

ERA Singapore chief executive Marcus Chu noted that with city-fringe launches like The Orie reaching a median price of $2,731 psf, One Bernam stood out like an undervalued prime district project.

“One Bernam’s median sale price of $2,521 psf was just a notch higher than its median launch price of $2,471 psf in May 2021, providing an attractive entry price point for a prime district project. Its competitive pricing attracted investors, positioning it as an appealing prime district value buy amid the narrowing price gap between prime district and city-fringe projects,” he added.

New launch Bagnall Haus, the third-best performing project in January, had 75 of its 113 units sold at a median price of $2,494 psf within its launch month.

Its key draws include attractive pricing for a freehold project and proximity to the upcoming Sungei Bedok MRT station, an interchange station for the Downtown and Thomson-East Coast lines, according to Ms Song.

Meanwhile, EC sales slipped to a mere 21 units in January from 170 in December, amid a dearth of new EC launches in January.

A tight supply of unsold stock – just 148 unsold new EC units were recorded as at January – should bode well for an upcoming EC launch, the 760-unit Aurelle of Tampines, PropNex said.

Developers’ sales in the suburbs are expected to surge in February as two new launches – the 501-unit Elta in Clementi Avenue 1 and the 1,193-unit Parktown Residence in Tampines – hit the market on Feb 22, it added.

More than 4,500 visitors were at Elta’s show-flat during its preview, while over 10,000 visitors thronged Parktown, an integrated development, in the first three days of its public preview, said Ms Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex.

With more than 1,000 new homes, excluding ECs, already transacted in January, and more sales expected in February and March, developers’ sales in the first quarter of 2025 could outperform those in each of the past three years, when fewer than 2,000 new homes were sold, she added.

Even with fewer interest rate cuts expected in 2025, Knight Frank’s Mr Tay expects new private home sales to continue to pick up pace due to a still-low local unemployment rate and healthy household balance sheets.