Developers sold 153 private homes excluding executive condominiums (ECs) in August 2026, down 79.1% month-on-month and 93% year-on-year. Almost no new projects were marketed during the month, which means the headline is largely a measure of empty shelves rather than absent buyers.
The seventh lunar month, the Hungry Ghost month, falls in this window. Many buyers avoid committing to big-ticket purchases during it, and developers respond by holding back previews rather than launching into a thin crowd. August 2026 therefore looks much like June 2026, when no new projects were brought to market and sales landed at a similar level.
The denominators are doing the work
The percentage falls are only as meaningful as the months they are measured against. Working backwards from the reported figures, on the assumption that both percentages apply to non-EC private home sales as published:
- July 2026 implied base: 153 / (1 - 0.791) = 732 units (approximate)
- August 2025 implied base: 153 / (1 - 0.93) = 2,186 units (approximate)
Both reconstructed figures are rounded and sensitive to how the reported percentages were themselves rounded, so treat them as scale indicators rather than exact prints. The point stands either way: August 2026 is being compared against a month with a full launch slate and against a year-ago month that was one of the strongest of the cycle.
The table below sets the three months side by side, with reconstructed figures flagged.
| Month | Units sold | New projects marketed | Change vs Aug 2026 (%) |
|---|
| Jul 2026 | ~732 (reconstructed) | Not specified in reported data | -79.1 |
| Aug 2026 | 153 (reported) | Essentially none | 0 |
| Aug 2025 | ~2,186 (reconstructed) | Not specified in reported data | -93.0 |
The takeaway: the two comparison bases differ by a factor of three between themselves, which is why one month's print can generate both a 79% fall and a 93% fall at the same time.
The only genuine demand signal in the month
With nothing new on the market, August's volume came from leftover inventory at earlier-launched projects, including Dunearn House and Lentor Gardens Residences. That is the part of the number worth reading. Buyers who transacted in a month with no fresh marketing, no preview weekends and an unfavourable calendar were acting on their own timelines, and 153 units of residual stock still cleared.
Analysts have read the slump as a seasonal lull rather than a turn in underlying demand, and the June comparison supports that. A demand break would show up as weak take-up against available supply, not as low absolute volume when supply is close to zero.
September is the actual test
The launch calendar restarts this month. City Developments previews Lucerne Grand, a 570-unit project next to Lakeside MRT in the Jurong Lake District, from 18 September, priced from about S$1.498 million, or from S$2,401 per square foot (psf).
That is the number to watch, and the metric to watch it with is the take-up rate on launch weekend, not the raw unit count. A 570-unit project selling half its stock says something different about pricing tolerance in the Jurong Lake District than one selling 15%, even though both would lift the September headline far above 153.
For buyers weighing timing, August changes nothing about prices or competition. It removes a month of data. The read on whether S$2,401 psf clears in a master-planned outer-region location, and on whether the Lentor pipeline still absorbs residual stock at pace, arrives with the September and October figures. Judge the market on those, on take-up against units released, and not on a print produced by a month in which developers deliberately chose not to sell.
Sarah Chen
