Resale transactions went into overdrive last month, with numbers rocketing past the level recorded in September.
The activity is a stark sign that life is roaring back into the market, although things are still far from the glory days of 2010 and 2014.
There were 1,461 non-landed private residential units resold in October, up 18.7 per cent on the 1,231 shifted in the previous month, according to SRX Property estimates. The year-on-year result is even more impressive, with October's volume up 122 per cent from the 658 units resold in the same month last year, although it was 28.7 per cent below the peak of 2,050 units in April 2010.
SRX Property said private non-landed resales for the first 10 months of the year are 46 per cent higher than for the whole of 2016. It predicts the volume for this whole year will be around 12,600 units - up 65 per cent from last year's 7,633 units.
Mr Wong Xian Yang, OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy, expects resale volumes of private homes to continue growing on the back of increased demand.
He suggests that the record resale prices for city-fringe non-landed private homes could have been fuelled by the surge in land prices for both collective-sale sites as well as Government Land Sale sites.
"Those selling private apartments and condos units in the rest of central region (RCR) in the resale market are holding firm or raising their asking prices, as higher land prices tend to augur well for future property prices," he said.
Resale prices for condo units and private apartments in the city fringe or RCR reached a new high last month, going by SRX Property flash estimates. On a month-on-month basis, its resale price index for non-landed private homes posted a 1.5 per cent gain last month. The price index for the suburbs, or outside central region (OCR), climbed at an even faster pace of 1.7 per cent.
In the prime core central region (CCR), prices inched up 0.3 per cent. As a result, SRX Property's overall resale price index for private apartments and condo units rose 1.3 per cent last month over September. This followed a 0.1 per cent month-on-month rise in the overall index in September.
On a year-on-year basis, the RCR price index outshone the other two regions with a 7.5 per cent gain. This was followed by a 6.4 per cent increase for the CCR and a 5.5 per cent increase for the OCR.
Source: SRX (15 Nov 2017)