SINGAPORE — New private home sales in the Republic surged to a 15-month high last month, boosted by the launches of two attractively priced projects, analysts said, but they warned that the buying momentum is likely to wane going into the traditional year-end lull.

Developers sold 1,252 new private homes last month, more than doubling the 509 homes that were offloaded in September, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) data showed on Tuesday (Nov 15). It was also the highest sales volume registered since July 2015, when 1,655 units exchanged hands.

The number of units launched rose to 1,467, more than tripling the 479 units in the previous month.

Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Realty Network, said: “Evidently, the spike in sales volume was led by the launches of two new condominium projects, Forest Woods and The Alps Residences. Buyers are generally drawn to these two projects as they were priced attractively vis-a-vis their respective locations.”

“For The Alps Residences, it is located within Singapore’s first regional centre, Tampines, and it has been some time since a new project launched in the area. For Forest Woods, it is within walking distance to NEX mall as well as the Serangoon MRT station, that serves as an interchange for the North-East Line and the Circle Line.”

Together, the two projects accounted for 698 units or 56 per cent of the new home sales in October. Ms Christine Li, director of research at property firm Cushman and Wakefield, said: “The improved sentiment is driven by the two main top performers — Forest Woods and The Alps Residences. Forest Woods sold 364 out of 519 units at a median price of S$1,412 per square foot, leveraging on its location in the matured Serangoon town and lifestyle offerings. The Alps Residences at Tampines sold 334 units out of 626 units at a median price of S$1,078 psf, which is a marked improvement from the sales of the Santorini by the same developer in the same neighbourhood in March 2014.”

The strong performance of the two projects saw the Outside Central Region (OCR), or suburbs, leading monthly sales at 1,043 units. This was followed by the Rest of Central Region (RCR), or city fringes, where 151 transactions were recorded, while the Core Central Region (CCR), or city centre, registered 58 sales, URA data showed.

New home sales are likely to remain healthy this month due to the launches of condominium projects Queen’s Peak in Queenstown and Parc Riviera in West Coast, analysts said, but they added that momentum is likely to ebb in the last two months of the year.

“Due to the festive season being around the corner, the primary home sales market could take a breather after the launches of Queen’s Peak and Parc Riviera. The monthly number could fall to between 700 and 1,000 in November, and between 500 and 800 in December. The year-to-date new home sales have reached 6,908 units … With two more months to go, it is expected that the total developer sales figure for 2016 will come in at around 8,000 units,” said Ms Li.