Condominium resale prices rose by 1.5 per cent in April after trending sideways for the past six months. This came as volumes reached a 13-month high.

Flash data from SRX and 99.co released on Monday (May 27) showed that 1,122 condo units changed hands for the month, up from the 911 units resold in March.

Volumes were up 25.8 per cent year on year, and 17.6 per cent higher than the five-year average volumes for the month of April.

Property analysts from Huttons, PropNex and SRI observed a jump in the number of foreign buyers during the month. This led to resale condo transactions in the Core Central Region (CCR) rising 23.3 per cent from that in March.

Transactions there made up 22.8 per cent of total resale volumes, although outpaced by the Outside Central Region (OCR) at 45.4 per cent, and the Rest of Central Region (RCR), which accounted for 31.8 per cent of total volumes.

ERA Singapore key executive officer Eugene Lim observed that developers had put up multiple units for sale in The Residences At W Singapore Sentosa Cove and in Cuscaden Reserve, which attracted buyers looking for undervalued resale properties.

For example, units for sale at The Residences At W Singapore Sentosa Cove were transacted at an average of S$1,789 per square foot (psf), nearly 40 per cent lower than its launch price, he said.

Huttons Asia chief executive Mark Yip said ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) may be relocating to Singapore for its excellent business-friendly and living environment. The stable political landscape may be a key factor behind these individuals’ choice of Singapore as a safe place to live.

Citing caveat data, PropNex chief executive Ismail Gafoor noted that in the first four months of 2024, 47 caveats were lodged for condo resale transactions by foreigners, down from 166 caveats in the first four months of 2023. Of the 47, 31 were from US buyers.

He expects home sales to be driven mainly by Singaporeans and Singapore PRs in the near term.

Mohan Sandrasegeran, head of research and data analytics at Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI), noted a moderation in the number of such deals, relative to that in the same period last year.

“One year after the implementation of a 60 per cent Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for foreigners, up from the previous rate of 30 per cent, there has been a noticeable stabilisation in the proportion of private units purchased by foreign buyers,” he added.

Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee Group, believes new project launches could have also contributed to the growth in demand for resale condominiums: “This is because the increased marketing activities have raised buyer awareness of private homes in the same area,” she said.

Furthermore, the firm prices of new private homes could also have nudged potential buyers into considering the older – and relatively cheaper – resale condos in the same area. This trend is more evident in areas with more new launches, she said.

Resale prices, meanwhile, inched up across all regions on the month, based on SRX and 99.co’s data. The RCR led gains with a 2 per cent rise, followed by the CCR, which was up 0.3 per cent. Prices in the OCR were up marginally by 0.1 per cent.

Year on year, resale prices were up 5.1 per cent. The OCR recorded the highest gain at 7.2 per cent, followed by the RCR, which climbed 5.2 per cent, and the CCR, which inched up 0.2 per cent.

Sub-sale transactions accounted for 9.2 per cent of all secondary sales, up 0.1 percentage point from March. Sub-sale deals are the secondary sales made before the completion of a project’s; secondary-sale transactions comprise both resale and sub-sale transactions.

The most expensive condo resold in April was a unit at The Marq on Paterson Hill, which went for S$13 million. In the RCR, the highest transacted price was S$8.3 million for a unit at The Peak; in the OCR, a unit in Windy Heights was sold for S$5.36 million.

The overall median capital gain for resale condos stood at S$337,000, down S$40,000 from the month before.

District 10 (Tanglin, Holland) posted the highest median capital gain at S$763,000, while District 1 (Boat Quay, Raffles Place, Marina) recorded the lowest median capital gain at S$2,000.

District 15 (East Coast, Marine Parade) posted the highest median unlevered return at 40.7 per cent, while District 1 recorded a negative median unlevered return of 1.8 per cent.

Capital gains and returns on a condo resale unit are calculated by comparing the current transacted price with the previous transacted price of the same unit. Districts with fewer than 10 matching transactions are excluded from the ranking.