Older projects powered September’s near-doubling in new-home sales

An older Pasir Panjang condominium, not one of September’s two newcomers, was the month’s bestselling private housing project. Terra Hill moved 32 units in September 2026, more than either fresh launch managed during the month.

Across Singapore, developers sold 296 new private homes excluding executive condominiums (ECs), almost twice August’s 153 units. The intriguing part is how this happened: buyers had relatively few newly launched homes to choose from, so existing projects supplied a meaningful share of the rebound.

What the 296 sales actually represent

The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s monthly developer-sales figures come from returns submitted by licensed developers. A sale is counted when the developer issues an Option to Purchase—the document giving a buyer the right to purchase the home—not when the legal transfer is eventually completed.

That makes these figures different from resale caveats or a tally of buyers collecting keys. They are still a useful and timely measure of activity in the primary market, meaning homes sold directly by developers.

September’s 143-unit increase from August works out to a 93.5% month-on-month rise. But August had been a two-year monthly low, so the near-doubling partly reflects an unusually weak starting point rather than a packed calendar of major launch weekends.

ECs are excluded from the 296 figure. These are privately built homes that begin with public-housing-style ownership and eligibility conditions before becoming fully private later.

Only two fresh projects entered the market

The two projects newly launched in September were Luxus Hills, a 999-year landed development in Seletar, and Amberwood at Holland, a 99-year project. Developers released 65 units at Luxus Hills and 70 at Amberwood at Holland.

Luxus Hills sold 18 units during the month, while Amberwood at Holland sold 24. Together, the two new projects contributed 42 sales—about 14% of September’s 296-unit total, based on mastREplan’s calculation from the reported figures.

That does not mean the other 254 sales all came from old or slow-moving stock. Projects launched before September can include recent developments still in their normal sales cycle. But it does answer the immediate question raised by the headline number: this was not simply a rush into a large wave of brand-new launches.

Instead, buyers spread their purchases across available projects, with some established developments doing particularly well.

Terra Hill returned to the top

Terra Hill, a 270-unit freehold condominium first launched in February 2023, led September’s project rankings with 32 sales at a median S$2,209 per square foot. The month’s transactions took it to 91.9% sold, according to CBRE’s compilation of URA data.

There was a project-specific reason worth noting. CBRE reported discounts of around 15% to 18% on some Terra Hill units. That may help explain the pickup there, but the evidence does not support stretching this detail into a claim that discounting drove the whole market’s September increase.

The Sen, which launched in November 2025, was the next notable older project, selling 25 units. Terra Hill and The Sen therefore contributed 57 sales between them, or just over 19% of all new private homes sold in September, by mastREplan’s calculation.

For a buyer, this mix matters more than the month-on-month percentage alone. A market can post a sharp rebound even when there are few new launches, provided existing projects find buyers through their location, tenure, remaining unit mix, pricing or promotions. September appears to have been such a month.

The longer view remains quieter

The year-to-date comparison puts the rebound in perspective. Developers sold 5,334 new private homes from January through September 2026, excluding ECs, down 32.3% from 7,875 in the corresponding nine months of 2025.

September was therefore busier than August, but the first nine months of the year remained well behind the previous year. Both facts can be true: sales almost doubled in one month, while cumulative activity stayed substantially lower.

The clearest reading is a selective one. With only two fresh projects launched, September’s 296 sales were not chiefly the story of buyers piling into a broad new-launch wave. They were also the story of existing projects—especially Terra Hill and The Sen—finding enough buyers to lift the monthly total from a very low base.