Government ramps up private housing supply; offers three EC sites on Confirmed List
To make sure that there suffices supply to fulfill real estate need and to maintain market stability, the authorities has actually sustained the supply of private residential units by providing 8,505 units in the upcoming Confirmed List and Reserved List of the 1H2025 GLS Government Land Sales (GLS) program 1H2025.
10 plots are going to be supplied under the Confirmed List, comprising nine residential locations, 3 of which are executive condominium (EC) plots. The tenth plot is a housing cum commercial area. The 10 sites can yield an estimated 5,030 residential units, including the 980 EC units.
Exclusive household costs are expected to see even more modest increases in 2024, with the collective rate increase over the first three quarters of the year at around 1.6%.
Seven new plots are going to be introduced in the 1H2025 GLS program. They include a plot at Lakeside Drive around the Jurong Lake Gardens in Jurong Lake District, Dunearn Road in the brand-new housing precinct in Bukit Timah Turf City, and Telok Blangah Road on the previous Keppel Golf Course site.
The ramp-up of supply from the GLS programmes has contributed to the stabilisation of the personal residential market, as shown by the moderation in property price momentum. Based on the URA private property price index, cost development has actually regulated to 6.8% in 2023 from 10.6% in 2021 and 8.6% in 2022.
The location of the previous Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society on Dorsett Road, off Rangoon Road, which can generate around 430 units, will also be launched for sale in 1H2025. A residential and commercial site at Hougang Central, which can yield a new mixed-use property development with 835 residence units and over 400,000 sq ft of commercial area, is sold. It will likely be integrated with the Hougang MRT Stop on the Northeast Line.
The last time 3 EC plots were launched for sale in an one GLS program was in 2H2014 when EC spots in Sembawang Road/Canberra Link, Anchorvale Crescent, and Woodlands Avenue 12 were released for tender. In 1H2014, 4 EC sites (2 in Yishun, one each in Sembawang and Choa Chu Kang) were released for sale by means of the GLS.
The Reserve List consists of four private housing locations, one commercial location, 3 White sites and one hotel site, which can possibly generate an added 3,475 private residential units and 199,900 sqm (2.15 million sq ft) gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space.
Additionally on the Confirmed Checklist is the non commercial plot in Upper Thomson Road (Parcel A), which saw no quotes when its tender closed in June 2024. Previously, the plot was to provide a mix of non commercial units and long-stay serviced apartments. Of note, the URA has supplied even more versatility this moment; it claimed that serviced apartment/long-stay serviced apartment usage would not be mandated for the location but can be enabled based on approval from technical firms, notes PropNex.
In regards to residential units for sale, it’s in line with the 5,050 units used in the Confirmed List of 2H2024. Nevertheless, it’s almost 60% greater than the regular supply on the Confirmed List in each GLS program from 2021 to 2023.
It was an unprecedented year for GLS tenders. For the first time, URA did not award the tender for three plots – Marina Gardens Crescent, the Jurong Lake District master property developer location, and plots in Media Circle (for long-stay serviced apartment use). The URA declined the quotes provided because they were too reasonable. These locations are currently listed on the 1H2025 Reserve List.
Following the progressive ramp-up of private housing supply in the GLS programs over the last three years, the supply of private residential units offered up for sale has actually increased progressively from 16,100 units at the end of 2021 to around 21,000 units since end-November 2024.
In addition to spots in two brand-new real estate precincts, the majority of the sites are nearby MRT stops, which might interest builders and buyers as well, notes Gafoor. “In our sight, one of the most attractive ones are the mixed-use site in Hougang Central (835 units) that will certainly be attached to the Hougang MRT terminal, the Telok Blangah Roadway plot (740 units) and Dunearn Road (370 units) site in brand-new housing precincts, and within minutes’ stroll to the MRT station, along with the Lakeside Drive website (575 units) that is right alongside the Lakeside MRT station, Jurong Lake Gardens and the Jurong East commercial hub.”
In view of the stiff competition for EC locations amongst property developers and going up EC land prices, the state has increase the supply of EC sites, with 3 plots potentially producing 980 units in the Confirmed List of 1H2025. This is a shift from previous GLS programmes ever since 2018, with only one EC site presented in each of the half-yearly land sales programmes, notes PropNex.
The 3,475 residential units on the Reserve Listing of 1H2025 are more than the 3,090 units in 2H2024. Including the Reserve Lineup, the overall exclusive real estate supply of 8,505 units in 1H2025 is on a level with the 8,140 units in 2H2024.
The rise in the EC land source in 1H2025 might “go some way to lighten the competition among developers in land tenders and assist to moderate EC land cost and prices as necessary”, claims Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex.
