St Regis launch helps lift luxury home prices 7.7%
THE prices of lavish apartments here just keep heading skywards. This time, the hikes are being driven by foreign homebuyers, not speculators.
A report by property consultancy CB Richard Ellis showed that average prices for luxury condominium units here rose 7.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year, compared to the first quarter.
Contributing to the rise was the launch of the exclusive St Regis Residences in the Tanglin area. About 60 of its 173 units have been sold.
Billed as the last word in opulence, St Regis units sold so far have fetched more than $2,000 per sq ft (psf), with one buyer paying a never-seen-before $3,000 plus psf for an apartment.
This project helped lift the average price of freehold luxury properties to $1,670 psf in the second quarter, up from $1,550 in the first.
This is not the steepest spike in flash apartment prices, however.
CB Richard Ellis’ director of residential services, Mr Joseph Tan, said: ‘This quarter-on-quarter increase is still lower than the 11.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in the third quarter of 2005.’ The Sail @ Marina Bay condominium was the catalyst back then.
Compared with the residential property boom from 1996 to 1997 that was fuelled by local and foreign speculators, foreign homebuyers are the key drivers of demand this time around, he said.
Demand for resale private apartments stayed strong in the second quarter with about 2,100 to 2,300 units sold.
At the same time, 1,800 to 2,000 new units were sold, of the 2,200 launched.
‘On the back of healthy gross domestic product growth, demand for new private homes is sustainable with the launch of several projects, and prices may continue to see an upside,’ the consultancy predicted.
Source : Straits Times - 22 Jun 2006
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