Agents closed more deals amidst drop in home prices
The slide in private home prices is luring wary property seekers back into the market.
Property agents are seeing an increase in transactions this year as the drop in private home prices is drawing buyers back into the market.
Property agencies ERA Realty Network, OrangeTee and PropNex Realty revealed that their agents closed about 20 to 40 percent more transactions in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the same period last year, reported The Straits Times.
“Prices have been sliding… and it has perhaps reached a level that potential buyers are somewhat comfortable with,” said PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail.
Property agent Daryl Ou, for instance, even managed to achieve his sales target for the year in June.
“I managed to close more transactions this year; they have increased about 50 percent year-on-year… I see more opportunities because of renewed buyers’ interest and several upcoming project launches,” said Ou, an Associate District Director at Huttons Asia.
Private home prices fell 10.8 percent from its peak in Q3 2013. A drop of that magnitude following years of steady increases was enough to lure wary home seekers.
In fact, private residential transactions, both new and resale, increased 6.8 percent to 11,254 units in the first nine months of the year from 10,533 over the same period in 2015, said Knight Frank.
OrangeTee agents saw private residential deals increase by 40 percent, 25 percent for PropNex Realty and 20 percent for ERA Realty Network.
“With cooling measures expected to remain unchanged and interest rates still relatively low, some of these buyers have decided to deploy their capital and enter the market,” said OrangeTee Managing Director Steven Tan.
For the first nine months of 2016, resale deals increased to 5,587 units from 4,696 last year. Sales of new units, however, dipped to 5,667 during the first nine months of this year from 5,837 previously.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
