According to reports, about 60% of the Penrose condominium units were sold by the Hong Leong group over the week of their launch itself. Even though experts predicted that the real estate market would take some time to recover from the blow of the pandemic, the statistics of this sale spurned a completely different story.
Out of 566 units, a total of 341 were sold in the 99-year leasehold area of development located in Sims Drive. The starting price of these condos were marked at $788,000 for an one-bedroom apartment, followed by the two-bedroom ones for $943,000, three-bedroom for $1.33 million and lastly, four-bedroom condos for $2.11 million.
For the unversed, the sizes of the apartments that are a part of the Penrose condominium fall within the window of 474 sq. ft. (one-bedroom) and 1,389 sq. ft. (four-bedroom). Hong Leong admitted that the take-up for these housing units were pretty decent as the selling prices were mostly between $1,500 and $1,700 for every unit.
Out of all the buyers, 85% hailed from Singapore and were permanent members of the country while the foreigners made up for the rest of the buyers. Apart from this, owners who were interested in upgrading their condos too seemed interested in getting their hands on the property.
The good news is, the sales of the newly-constructed apartments saw the maximum sale last month in a span of 11 months. The interesting part was however, that all this happened despite the repercussions including recession and job losses that were stitched in this realm by the pandemic and the Hungry Ghost month. Market observers are of the opinion that this a result of the pent-up demand that intensified during the two-month circuit breaker in Singapore and consequently pushed the scheduled launches and sales.
If you look into the scenario carefully, you will realise that there are more layers to this than just the reason stated in the preceding segment. Another potential ground could be that people believe the recourse of investing in properties during such uncertain times is wiser than any other alternative. When the market is volatile and the economy is fluctuating everyday, assets like these are considered to be safe haven.
The head of sales and marketing of Hong Leong Holdings, Ms Betsy Chng stated that sensitive pricing and timing were the main factors that drove this startling response after the Penrose condominiums were launched. She further accepted that taking the current scene into account it is important to recognize the proper time and price the properties rightly so that they correspond with the market sentiments and the value of each new launch condo project including its design, location and quality of the furnishings.
This project has been developed by the joint efforts of Hong Leong development and City Developments which happen to be another member of the same group. Because of COVID-19, both balloting and booking of the properties were conducted through Zoom calls.
