Private residential completions in Singapore almost doubles in 2021

A total of 6,388 units were completed in 2021, nearly double 2020’s 3,433 units.

In a recent report, Savills reveals that 2,055 private residential units obtained their Temporary Occupation Permits (TOPs) in Singapore in the final quarter of 2021. Bulk of the new completions in the final quarter of the year came from Park Colonial (805 units), Margaret Ville (309 units) and Royalgreen (285 units). 

This was the first time the number of completed units has exceeded 2,000 units in a quarter since Q4/2019, when 2,298 units obtained TOP. 

Here’s more from Savills:

The completions of private residential properties amounted to 6,388 units for the whole of 2021, almost doubling from the 3,433 units completed in 2020 when the construction sector was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Circuit Breaker period. While there is a surge in completed units, the amount is still lower than pre-COVID-19 times. 

Taking into account the completions in 2021, the islandwide stock of private homes inched up 1.6% YoY to 382,195 units as at Q4/2021, with almost all of these being attributed to the addition in stock of non-landed properties. This was much larger than the marginal growth of 0.7% in 2020.

Owing to limited completions and higher leasing demand, vacancy rate dipped 0.4 of a ppt QoQ to 6.0% in the final quarter of the year, the lowest since Q2/2020 when vacancy rate reached 5.4%. This was a reversal from the QoQ contraction of 0.1 of a ppt in the previous quarter. Vacancy rate of both landed and non-landed residential properties fell 0.3 of a ppt and 0.4 of a ppt to 4.7% and 6.3% respectively. 

Out of the three market segments, only RCR recorded a QoQ growth in vacancy rate for the second consecutive quarter of 0.5 of a ppt to 7.0%. This may be due to more completions in RCR in the past few quarters. On the other hand, vacancy rate of private residential units in CCR and OCR declined 0.4 of a ppt and 0.7 of a ppt to 9.3% and 4.1% respectively. Therefore, on a YoY basis, the largest fall in vacancy rate was observed for CCR (-1.7 ppts), followed by OCR (-1.0 ppt) and RCR (-0.3 of a ppt) respectively.