HOMEBUYERS can look forward to some 65,400 private residential units coming on stream in the next few years to meet surging demand.

HOMEBUYERS can look forward to some 65,400 private residential units coming on stream in the next few years to meet surging demand.

This new supply in the pipeline comprises projects that are already under construction and those that have been granted planning approval but are not being built yet as at the third quarter of this year.

This is 16.4 per cent higher than the 56,200 units at the end of the second quarter, according to the latest quarter data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday.

About 44,500 units are expected to be completed between the last quarter of this year and 2010. Construction has begun for almost all the units scheduled for completion up to 2008. About 48 per cent of the units that are expected to be completed in 2009 and 2010 are also being built, while the remaining units not under construction yet can be ready on schedule.

Of the Q3 supply, 38,013 units, were still unsold. These comprised 1,897 units that had been launched for sale by developers and 6,546 units which had the pre-requisite conditions for sale and could be launched for sale immediately.

The remaining 29,570 units with planning approvals did not have the pre-requisite conditions for sale. But the sale license from the Controller of Housing and Building Plan approval from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) could be obtained quite quickly and these units could be made available for sale quite soon, if the developers choose to do so.

The URA said more supply will also come from the sites made available by the Government in the second half year of the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme, which can yield about 8,000 new units.

When sold, the supply from these sites can be made available for sale within the next one year or so.

The Government will also increase supply in the first half of next year, if necessary, said the URA.

It added that there will also be additional supply from new private residential developments on private land which will be coming in for planning approval, including those on sites where the existing developments have been sold en-bloc. This will further increase the number of units for sale in the next few years.

According to the URA data, a total of 3,709 uncompleted private residential units were launched for sale by developers in the third quarter, compared with the 4,362 units launched in the previous quarter.

Of the 3,709 uncompleted units launched in the quarter, 1,360 units were in the core central region, 1,148 units were in rest of central region, and 1,201 units were outside the central region.

Major residential projects launched in the quarter included The Parc Condominium at West Coast Walk (659 units), The Soleil @ Sinaran at Sinaran Drive (417 units) and The Rochester at Rochester Park (366 units).

During the 3rd Quarter 2007, 3,367 uncompleted private residential units were sold by developers, compared with the 4,820 units sold in Q2.

Tthe number of sub-sales fell across the board during the region, to 1,163 in the third quarter, compared to 1,791 three months ago.

However, subsales accounted for 12.7 per cent of all sale transactions in the quarter, compared to 12.1 per cent in Q2.

A total of 2,229 private residential units were completed during the quarter. Major residential projects completed included the Icon at Gopeng Street (646 units), 8@Mount Sophia at Mount Sophia (313 units) and The Lakeshore at Jurong West Street 41 (280 units of the total 848 units).

The vacancy rate of completed private residential units was 5.4 per cent as at the end the quarter, compared with 4.9 per cent the previous quarter.

For Executive Condominiums, there were 444 units in the pipeline, all of which were under construction.

The total stock of completed EC units remained unchanged at 9,986 units as at the end of Q3, while the vacancy rate stood at 0.8 per cent.