Spore sees 'healthy' demand for property during partial lockdown -- report

KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Singapore’s economy may have been impacted by its eight-week “circuit-breaker” to combat the Covid-19 pandemic but it seems that its private housing segment has weathered the dire situation.

According to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), 1,340 units changed hands in April and May (during the circuit breaker). The report said that is “almost 40 per cent (3,391) of the level of transactions in the same time period last year”.

“This indicates that there is still healthy underlying demand even during the circuit-breaker period,” Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ERA Realty said.

It must be noted that all these transactions took place even with restrictions on movement, closure of show flats, and entry bans of foreign buyers from coming to Singapore.

Out the 1,340 units that sold during the partial lockdown, 764 were new units bought directly from developers while the rest were resale units.

And becoming more in vogue as result of the circuit breaker is the “virtual viewing” involving virtual tours and online viewings.

Even then, Alvin Khoo, a senior associate district director at real estate firm OrangeTee, clarified with SCMP that “buyers were more comfortable with purchasing new homes through virtual viewings than they were with resale homes”.

“The main concerns of home seekers, especially for the secondary market segment, are that some still prefer to physically ‘touch and feel’ the apartment, to be able to go to the apartment to have a sense of the space and check if there is any significant wear and tear or other issues in the apartment.

“As for the new homes segment, they have lesser concerns due to the fact that most developers provide a warranty period for defects,” he explained.

There were also some advantages to virtual viewing. “In my personal opinion, we were able to conduct our business in a more effective and efficient way,” Khoo said.

As for the downside, he said “working hours were stretched as we could have appointment requests for videoconferencing from home seekers from as early as 8am to even 11pm at night”.

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