En bloc fever continued unabated in the first quarter of 2018, with 17 successful residential en bloc sales valued at S$5.83 billion already chalked up between January and March. This amounted to over 70 per cent of the total value of collective sale deals for the whole of last year, according to figures from global real estate services company Colliers International on Tuesday (April 3). 

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The firm predicts that the total value of this year’s en bloc sale transactions is likely to trump that of 2017 — which was S$8.13 billion from 27 transactions — which is a view that property analysts agreed with. Last year’s was the best showing since 2007, which holds the record sales volume of S$11.6 billion, according to reports from various property research firms.
The experts, however, were divided on whether it will reach a new record high.

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Buoyed by a brighter economic outlook and continued recovery in the property market, there is potential for the current en bloc sale wave to surpass the last cycle from 2005 to 2007, said Colliers International.
However, it cautioned that factors like an economic downturn and fresh property cooling measures could “bring a premature end to this upswing”.

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Even though there is still a “healthy appetite for well-located developments”, the deluge of sites on the market has tilted the balance in favour of developers. As a result, they are likely to cherry-pick the best sites that are priced realistically, said Colliers International’s managing director Tang Wei Leng in the media release on Tuesday. 

 

The firm also noted a shift in preferences from suburban to prime sites. Eight of the 17 sites sold via collective sales in the first three months of this year were in the core central region of districts 9 and 10.The top three en bloc deals within this period were Pacific Mansion in River Valley — which fetched a hefty S$980 million in the largest deal since the S$1.3 billion. Farrer Court sale in 2007 — Park West in Clementi at S$840.9 million, and Pearl Bank Apartments in Outram at S$728 million.

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Article credit: Kelly Ng