A total of 39 properties with an auction value of $88,9 million will be sold in 2022
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The total number of properties were sold for sale under the hammer in 2022. This equates to an overall worth $88.93 million, as per the data collected by Edmund Tie. This is an 22.3% decline y-o-y. In 2021 32 properties were sold for $114.42 million.
In spite of the decrease in the overall value of sales, Joy Tan, Edmund Tie’s director of auctions and sales, says that the auction market had an “relatively good year”. The lower sale value to less transactions of $5 million or more. “Plus that, the majority of high-value transactions of 2021 were within the value of $7 million to $10 million, while in 2022, the majority of transactions were between S$5 and S$8 million,” she adds.
The value of the sale also does not include deals that were closed through private treaties. This means that some noteworthy deals aren’t included in the final total. “For example that for instance, the Edmund Tie auction & sales team sold a plot of land in Joo Chiat Road for $22 million in May. Then, they sold an oceanfront detached house on Ocean Drive for $18.3 million in August. Both were high-value deals that concluded prior to auction,” Tan explains.
The total number of properties were up at auction for sale in the year 2022. Of these 267 (58%) were owner listings, and there were 158 (34%) were mortgagee listings. The remaining properties included other listings, including estate, sheriff and the MCST sales.
The percentage of owner listings in 2022 was the highest in the past seven years. This is the second time in a row that owner listings have outsold mortgage listings. “Given the record-setting prices for homes this year, we saw less distressed sales” Tan observes.
She also says the increased percentage of owner listings point towards a rising amount of owners who are turning to auctions for the sale of their property. ” We have observed that many investors who are owner-owners benefit from the robust real estate market to sell their properties in the course of portfolio restructuring and also tapping into auctions as an alternative disposal option,” she says.
Residential properties comprised the majority of properties auctioned in the year in the auction, with 20 units auctioned for a total worth $52.71 million. Commercial properties were the second largest segment, with 10 units being sold for $13.47 million.
Some notable residential deals include the townhouse at 8 Nassim Hill that was sold by auction to the tune of $9.79 millions on February. In April the month of April, an semi-detached home at Nim Green was auctioned for $6.33 million which was $500,000 more than the initial price. Commercial transactions also included a sheriff’s auction of an medical suite at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. It was sold off successfully to the tune of $8.44 Million in May.
Looking towards the future, Tan expects more distressed sales to be sold in 2023 due to uncertainty in the economy and the rising interest rates. As borrowers begin to feel the pressure of rising monthly mortgage payments, she expects an increase in distressed sales, particularly during the second quarter this year.
However, Tan views that buyers might also be able to lower their price expectations. “As as a result auction sales are most likely to increase only after 2Q2023 in which buyers and sellers alter their expectations of price in line with a better understanding of market conditions,” she opines.
She anticipates the steady flow of owner-owned listings to increase into the coming year. “All up, we expect an increase in the property auction market to provide diverse property types that will meet the needs of different buyers in the coming year. In-person auctions are returning to full force 2023 will be quite busy in auctions in the Singapore property auction marketplace,” she says.