Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Strong demand for private homes in Q1 2010

Demand for new homes in the first quarter of this year more than doubled that of the fourth quarter of 2009.

Property consultancy CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) said response to new projects launched in the first three months of the year chalked up close to 4,000 homes compared to only 1,860 in the previous quarter.

This is despite the introduction of another set of property curbs in February.

The property consultancy firm said this showed the resilience of residential demand from both owner-occupiers and investors.

Nevertheless, CBRE said the property measures seemed to be effective in weeding out short term speculators.

The strong take-up in the first quarter was anchored on selected new projects with strong locational and product attributes such as the Altez, Cube 8 and Holland Residences.

CBRE’s Joseph Tan said most of the new launches in the first quarter were freehold projects located in prime districts 9, 10 and 11.

Based on caveats lodged to date, about a third of the buyers in the first quarter of 2010 were HDB upgraders.

Foreigners bought around 23.5 per cent of the new homes in the first quarter, the top three groups being Indonesians, Malaysians and Chinese.

On the whole, CBRE said home prices in the first quarter rose about 2 to 5 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2009.

Separately, Head of DTZ South-east Asia Research, Ms Chua Chor Hoon said private home prices are expected to increase a more moderate 5 to 15 per cent this year.

Source: Channel News Asia, 30 Mar 2010

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