Singapore’s property auction market saw total sales value for this year soar 41 percent to $102.27 million from $72.50 million last year – its highest in five years, revealed a JLL report.
This comes even as the total number of properties successfully auctioned this year is similar to that of last year at 34 properties.
JLL attributed the rise in total sales value to big-ticket items sold earlier in the year, with the $16.30 million sale of a single-storey bungalow with redevelopment potential at 25 Branksome Road in September emerging as this year’s biggest auction deal.
The report stated that the residential sector accounted for 68 percent of total sales value in 2015, due to the large share of sales listings which reached 70 percent in Q1 and Q4 2015, or an annual percentage of 65 percent.
Except for 2013, the number of residential properties put up for auction since 2009 has consistently surpassed the combined number of commercial and industrial properties, said JLL. Residential properties accounted for only 46 percent of total listings in 2013.
Meanwhile, 88 percent of the 26 properties sold this year were mortgagee listings, a similar percentage to that recorded in 2014, when 16 of the 20 residential properties sold were mortgagee listings.
The past two years marked a significant growth in the percentage of mortgagee properties as a portion of residential auction sales, noted JLL. This is a departure from 2010 to 2013, when mortgagee listings accounted for less than 50 percent of total residential sales.
“In the environment of impending further increase in interest rates and softening of rental market, we are likely to see more mortgagee sales put up in 2016. The majority of these are likely to comprise residential properties,” said Mok Sze Sze, Head of Auction and Sales at JLL.
