SINGAPORE – The supply of private homes from confirmed sites under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme for the second half of this year has been raised by nearly 25 per cent to 2,000 units, up from 1,605 units for the first half of the year.
“On balance, the Government has decided to moderately increase the supply of private housing on the confirmed list,” the Ministry of National Development (MND) said on Thursday morning (June 10).
“The unsold inventory of private housing units has declined over the past year amidst strong demand. Nonetheless, even as the economy is recovering from the recession in 2020, there are continued uncertainties in economic and labour market conditions due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation globally and locally.”
Huttons Asia director of research Lee Sze Teck said: “This marks one of the steepest increases in supply of dwelling units since the second half of 2016, when supply was hiked by 39.1 per cent.”
He added: “It is a good response to the hunger for land displayed by developers in recent GLS tenders.”
MND had raised private housing supply from confirmed sites in the first half of this year by 17 per cent, after cutting it by 23 per cent to 1,370 units in the second half of 2020 due to the fallout from Covid-19.
The latest confirmed list comprises four private residential sites – including one executive condominium (EC) site – that can yield about 2,000 private residential units, of which 375 are EC units.
Supply from reserve list sites can add another 4,860 private residential units, bringing total potential supply to 6,860 units. This is 2.6 per cent lower than the 7,045 units for the first half of this year.
The reserve list comprises six private residential sites (including one EC site), two white sites – where a range of uses is allowed – and one hotel site. Apart from the 4,860 private homes (including 700 EC units), the sites can yield 90,000 sq m gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space and 530 hotel rooms.
Meanwhile, the Government also accepted an application from a developer to put up a white site at Marina View for sale by public tender. The site was on the reserve list for the first half of this year’s GLS programme and can yield about 905 private residential units, 2,000 sq m GFA of commercial space and 540 hotel rooms.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has received an application from a developer who has committed to submit a bid at a minimum price of $1.51 billion in the tender for the land parcel. As the minimum price committed by the developer is assessed to be acceptable to the Government, URA will release the site for sale by public tender on June 28 this year.
The Government will continue to monitor economic and property market conditions closely and adjust the supply of future GLS programmes, as necessary, said MND.