Is it doom and gloom or boom and vroom?

Singapore property market. Is it doom and gloom or boom and vroom? All the statistics are pointing to a downturn in the Singaporean market. All the statistics from Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. The HDB prices are down, the luxury prices are down. The total number of transactions are down. There’s already more than sufficient units of HDB flats and next year, the HDB will build less units compared to earlier estimates. Some are even selling at a loss compared to the price they paid earlier. Read here:  Singapore property, prices continuously declining into 2015  Despite all these negative news, one executive condominium showed that instead of doom and gloom, it might just be boom and vroom! Within 2 days, the 546-unit Lake Life executive condominium (EC) had 98% booking. In other words, remaining units are just 12 units. If one of the readers who are reading this buys another unit, then there would be just 11 units left! Haha.
Okay, is it because of the price? The project’s average price is S$857 psf. I checked online. This is not considered a low price. In fact, it’s 10-20% higher than the typical prices for ECs in Singapore today. (Based on propertyguru.com.sg search results). So, what happened? Well, even the Managing Partner of the developer, Vincent Ong had no answer. Their projection was just to sell half of the units over the weekend. Well, after selling 98% of the units, the reasons given included Jurong which is considered a prime location as the next hottest address and the condo’s first-of-a-kind active living concept. I will believe his words for it. The total number of e-applications received before this launch was 1,853 applications. As usual, most of any project in Singapore would be near to a MRT station. This one is nearby Lakeside MRT and is expected to be TOP in 2017. TOP means getting the key. In full it’s Temporary Occupation Permit.
My personal belief is still the same. Today, if you intend to be a good developer, you need to really do your homework well and when it comes to really telling the world about your launch, you have better really tell the whole world about it. The last thing that should be on any developer’s minds today is, whether they should advertise in which newspaper. If you still have that thought, all the best. It should be done comprehensively once you have determined that your pricing vis-a-vis the location is sufficient to sell once the potential buyers come.
Be reminded, the worst project even if you tell the world, it will still not sell. However, a new project, even if location is not the best but just acceptable, it will sell. The reason? How many units are we talking about? 500? Well, if you are able to tell 500,000 people about this project, just 0.1% buying would mean your units are fully sold within the weekend of launch. Oh yeah, even today, despite the gloom and doom in the Klang Valley property market, there are still many projects which are mostly sold within a short period of time. So, is it all gloom and doom or still boom and vroom? Haha. All the best to the good developers.
written on 11 Nov 2014
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