Singapore developers sold the highest number of homes in eight months, helped by the successful marketing of two new projects.

Developers sold 843 units in March, more than double the revised 303 units in February, and 38 percent higher from a year ago, according to data released Friday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Sales were boosted by the launch of CapitaLand Ltd.’s project in the Cairnhill area, close to the prime Orchard Road shopping district, where the developer sold 177 of the 200 units marketed. The Wisteria project by NorthernOne Development Pte. in the Singapore suburbs also added to sales, after selling 125 of the 216 units on offer.

Singapore home prices have dropped for ten quarters, posting the longest losing streak in almost two decades, as property curbs cooled demand. An index tracking private residential prices fell 0.7 percent in the three months ended March 31 from the previous quarter, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The city-state’s government began introducing residential property curbs in 2009 as low interest rates and demand from foreign buyers raised concerns that the market was overheating. Those curbs have included a cap on debt repayment costs at 60 percent of a borrower’s monthly income, and higher stamp duties on home purchases.

The government has signaled it is reluctant to lift the cooling measures, fearing such action would lead to renewed overheating in the market. In his budget speech last month, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said it was “premature” to relax the curbs.

Singapore was ranked the second-most expensive city in Asia to buy a luxury home in Asia, after Hong Kong, in a 2016 wealth report by estate agents Knight Frank LLP.

Source:
courtesy of BLOOMBERG

by Pooja Thakur Mahrotri

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