With Covid-19 terrorising the world, the concept of working from home has become widely accepted. In fact, it has become the new norm, and more people are preferring to telecommute to work and expand their network remotely/virtually.
How does working from home impact the real estate demand? Apart from causing an unprecedented level of demand and surge in price (read article), this has caused property buyers to look for larger units. Since most people are spending more time at home, it is most logical that demands for larger units start to climb. This trend was also reported in a recent article by Channel News Asia Business.
The article shared that a study was done recently comparing between pre-pandemic data from 2019, and from Q3 2020 to Q1 2021 – after the 'circuit breaker' period in Singapore. According to Nicholas Mak, Head of Research & Consultancy at ERA Realty, "Across these periods, average quarterly sales went up some 18 per cent for smaller HDB resale flats, but rose about 34 per cent for larger ones. The biggest increase in sales was for five-room and executive flats. Average quarterly sales for these jumped by about 40 per cent."
That said, the same trend was not observed in the private, non-landed market. This could be due to "affordability and the potential of an en bloc cycle is leading owners to hold on to their properties, which tend to be older and larger". As for landed properties, prices and demand have seen significant uptakes. Prices for the segment jumped by 6.7% in the first quarter of 2021. Demand wise, quarterly figures climbed between 69% to 126% since the lifting of circuit breaker (650 to 869 units sold each quarter) as compared to pre-pandemic (average of 385 new and resale landed homes sold quarterly in 2019).
This trend is most likely here to stay, since Covid-19 does not seem to be going away. If you are looking for a larger home or have one on hand, this is a good time to start building your real estate network or reach out to a trusted real estate agent.