New private home sales plunged in February due to several factors including Singapore property cooling measures, lack of new project launches as well as the Lunar New Year lull period.

The recent Russia invasion in Ukraine caused a major upset in the global stock markets. 

Singapore property developers sold 527 new private homes in February, down 22.5 per cent from January's 680 units, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).  

Notably, it is 18.3 per cent lower than the 645 new private homes sold in February 2021.

The 32-unit Royal Hallmark was the only new project launch last month.

Royal Hallmark is a freehold boutique development in District 15 which sold 10 units at a median price of S$1,905 per square foot (psf) during its launch on Feb 26.

The best selling project was Normanton Park. The developer of 1,862-unit development, Kingsford Huray Development Pte Ltd, sold 84 homes at a median price of S$1,853 psf.

This was followed by UOL's Avenue South Residence, which moved 31 units at a median S$2,364 psf.

Core central region (CCR) sales also dropped to a one-year low with 93 units which took up 19 per cent of February's sales. Because the luxurious projects in District 9, 10 and 11 tend to attract investors and foreign buyers. This group of buyers are adversely affected by the hike in additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) rates.

Outside Central Region (OCR) registered one of the weakest transaction volumes since April 2020.

Property analysts had predicted that February will be a slower month than January due to the Chinese New Year.

"Geopolitical tensions, high energy prices and rising interest rates will continue to weigh on the real estate market sentiment," said ERA Associate Division Director, Andy Chia Jin Tai.

"New project launches will remain muted in March," said Mr Chia. 

Property developers and realtors can take solace that the capacity limits on project show flats will be eased to 1,000 persons at any one time with effective from 15 March 2022.