SINGAPORE: Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Property sold 26.5% of the 816 units at The Continuum over its launch weekend at an average price of US$2,732 (RM12,134) per sq ft.
Buyers took up 216 units of the freehold condominium development, with “healthy demand” seen across all unit types, said the joint developers on Sunday.
Located in Thiam Siew Avenue off Tanjong Katong Road, The Continuum houses 816 units in six 17 or 18-storey tower blocks. More than 60% of the units available are two- and three-bedders.
Mark Yip, chief executive of Huttons Asia, said The Continuum had a strong showing in spite of the latest property cooling measures and “cloudy economic outlook”.
He noted that this marked the first freehold project launch with a land size above 200,000 sq ft in the Katong area in almost 20 years, with the last such project being Haig Court in 2004.
According to Huttons’ estimates, buyers were predominantly locals and first-timers.
In addition, quite a number of the units sold were larger ones, which indicated that these were purchased by families for their own occupancy, Yip added.
Marcus Chu, chief executive officer of ERA Realty Network, noted that the agency’s buyers were attracted to The Continuum mostly because it is a large-sized freehold development, with a majority of them picking the two-bedroom or three-bedroom units to occupy as owners.
He said: “Such larger-sized developments have proven to have stronger resale value, and they typically are able to fetch higher resale prices than smaller developments due to more resale demand and, as a result, successively more resale transactions done at higher prices.”
He added: “Purchasers today think long term, and the ability to reap better profits and returns on their purchases is an important consideration.”
PropNex CEO Ismail Gafoor said the take-up rate of units was encouraging and reflected the “keen demand” for homes in District 15.
This followed the launch of nearby Tembusu Grand last month, which sold 53% of its 638 units at an average price of US$2,465 (RM10,948) per sq ft at its launch.
The average price of The Continuum is expected to trend higher than that of Tembusu Grand, “reflecting a premium for freehold properties, which tend to retain their value better over the long term”, he added.
The developers bought the site in November 2021 for US$815mil (RM3.6bil). They later added on a smaller piece of land at 2A Thiam Siew Avenue.
Based on PropNex’s observations, The Continuum’s two-bedroom types were the most popular and accounted for about 61% of the development’s total sales.
Gafoor pointed out that there were no foreigners among the buyers served by PropNex, which transacted 100 units at The Continuum – a likely result of the latest round of cooling measures, which saw the additional buyer’s stamp duty rate for foreigners double to 60%.
This has affected investment demand from this group, he said.
More than 10% of the buyers served by PropNex agents were Singapore permanent residents, while the rest were Singaporeans.
“We expect residential property sales in Singapore to continue to be underpinned by demand from local buyers, which will lend stability to the overall market amid the new cooling measures,” said Gafoor.
The Continuum’s take-up rate was below the 75% at Blossoms by the Park in Buona Vista, which was the first residential project to be launched after the latest cooling measures were implemented.
However, there were only 275 units available at Blossoms by the Park.
Nicholas Mak, chief research officer of property portal Mogul.sg, said the cooling measures had “little impact” on the sales of both developments; rather, he attributed the key reason for The Continuum’s slower sales to buyers finding its price “too aggressive”.
The median transacted price of freehold non-landed private properties in District 15 sold by developers in the last 16 months had been US$2,480 (RM11,014) prt sq ft, he noted.
“Hence, if a new condominium project is launched at a price level that is much higher than comparable projects in the vicinity, the sales would be slower.”
He also added that the percentage of units bought by foreigners in the past 16 months in both District 15 and in the Buona Vista area was relatively low, at less than 5% of the transacted housing units. — The Straits Times/ANN
