Hey there,
I’m Marc Chan, the Listings Lead, from the PropertyLimBrothers team.
So I thought I’ll switch it up this time around and write in 1st person rather than 3rd person so it gives you a sense of being in my shoes for this project we had, and the exact thoughts that ran through my mind to how we eventually sold this 4 bedroom apartment in under 32 days from our Video Launch date at a Record Peak Price transacted unit in the development. (*at the point of sale in Mar 2020)
I recall sometime in May 2019, Melvin & I met up with our clients, age in their 40s who are in the Banking & Finance industry, who were currently living in a 4 bedroom Executive Condominium (EC) at Prive with their 2 daughters aged 4-6 of age.
We had a pretty long chat about their property plans going forward and what would make sense for their family as they were planning to move nearer to the school that they hoped to enrol their children for Primary 1 – for our overseas readers, this is pretty common as you get a higher priority of entry into a Primary school if you’re living within 1 km radius from the school.
In 2019, Prive EC, which was completed in 2013, had already passed its Minimum occupation period of 5 years which makes it “Semi-privatised” to be sold in the resale market to Singapore citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents.
For purposes of this article, I’ll be focusing more on the Marketing Campaign that our team undertook and the preparation work scope that went into place to get the place ready.
So during the first visit, after our chat, our clients toured us around the home. They have 2 beautiful kids and with kids also comes toys and stuff around the home – which I’m sure many parents will agree is the norm!
Next, we took some photos of the home for our reference and noted down some things that we felt had to be done to place the home in a more presentable state, bid goodbye and left.
Now, our clients at this point were still not decided on their next move and put their plans on hold.
[A few months later…]
Fast forward to Jan 2020, I believe it was some time before the Chinese New Year Period. Our clients contacted us and told us that they had moved out of their home and that they were ready for us to kickstart the Marketing Phase of their Prive EC.
So about 7-8 months had passed since we last spoke, from May 2019 to Jan 2020, so I did a recheck on the current indicative bank valuations, did a study of 4 bedroom condo/ECs within the Punggol MRT vicinity to be able to recommend a Pricing Strategy.
The next thing to prepare was the presentation state of the home. Referring to the photos we had taken the last time around, I recalled that there was clutter of toys and household items around the home – so this was the next barrier. We needed to clear the clutter.
[Photos after our clients had moved out]
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We met at the home, and I circled out the areas that had to be cleared.
As the owners had moved out, the unit was almost bare with close to no furniture in place. Back in the days, it was great to sell an “empty” home as there’s no clutter and buyers can easily look at the home.
However, in the current market, this isn’t always the case.
Why is this so?
First, with the influx of New launch developments in the market, buyers have been accustomed to visiting Developer showflat units which are fully designed, renovated and with suitable furnishings put in place to make the show unit as appealing to the consumer as possible.
Next, in current condominium/EC developments, I’m sure most of you will agree that the overall bedroom sizes are also getting smaller. Without furniture such as an actual bed, buyers might not be able to visualise the possibility of the size of bed placement possible in an empty bedroom. Hence, they might just write off this home as having small rooms and skip on to the next apartment they have shortlisted in the list of suitable properties.
Coming back to our Prive unit, here’s my initial thoughts:
Initial problems faced when we saw the listing:
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Cluttered with kids’ toys and household items which is common
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Owners having lived here for a good 7 years, a lot of items around the home which made it look like there wasn’t enough storage spaces
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Room sizes were not that big but reasonable in today’s standard for Condo/ECs. However, as the rooms were empty, it did not show the possibilities of fitting in a proper bedroom setup. What size bed can I fit?
Some Plus points:
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This was the top floor Penthouse unit which provided a super high 4.2M Ceiling height in the Living room making the Living space feel larger.
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This was the only 4 bedroom unit in Prive that was going to be for sale which
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Had 2 Ensuite Bedrooms : Master + Junior Master bedrooms
So What solution did we plan for?
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To invite our Staging consults to dress up the property to allow buyers to visualise and feel the actual space with furniture strategically placed
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Sent clients our PropertyLimBrothers Decluttering tips
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To craft a unique Home Tour Script that brought out the key plus points of the home
So with the above in place, we kickstarted the marketing 3 days before Chinese New Year on 22 Jan 2020.
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So we had our 1st viewing after CNY on 29 Jan 2020.
More viewings started coming in during the coming week or two.
Our Video Home Tour was a little delayed due to the CNY period and was eventually launched in Feb 2020.
Our digital marketing team also crafted Targeted Social media ads that were geo-targeted & dropped into the District 19 region, Hougang, Sengkang, Punggol, etc target audiences.
We noticed that the video content drew in more qualified viewers who had seen the video a few times, showed it to their family & friends and before actually coming for the viewing.
In fact, as we wanted to try and hit a target price above bank valuation, we also qualified and informed buyers & co-broke agents that the reserve base price was $1.45M & Upwards (Bank Valuation 1.45m)
I had also prepared a 20 page Comparative Market Analysis of all condos within 500m of Punggol MRT, and analyse why our layout and project, etc. is better
However, even with the above done, a significant new concern started to “pop” up during the viewings that were highlighted by the buyers who came. This is common as everyone has different priorities when viewing a home.
Here was the new problem that we faced when marketing the listing:
We realised that the price quantum for a 4bedder versus a 3 bedder was a difference of $300k-350k more in Prive. So buyers feel that they are essentially paying $300,000 more for just 1 more bedroom and perhaps a little more space which seems to be in the balcony area.
We shared that the difference wasn’t in just having one more bedroom, but also the larger living/dining + Jr master bathroom + laundry area + high ceiling.
We also prepared a comparison of similar 4 bedrooms in the Punggol MRT vicinity within 500meters to allow potential buyers to see that our layout here at Prive was one that had more merits and bonuses vis-a-vis the others. Of course, this is subjective but this gives the buyer an overview even if they have not seen the other developments in the vicinity.
The End Result:
How long did we take to sell? Sold in 1.5months (Sold 32 days from video launch)
How many viewings : 27 viewings
How much was the valuation and final selling price : Bank Valuation : $1.45M Sold at: $1.46M (highest done in Prive at this point of time, last done $1.43M)
Profile of buyers: Chinese family. 1 elderly mother in her 70s and 2 sisters in their 30-40s.
Why did the buyers decide to buy? They have sold their current home and looking to downsize from their current property.
Learning Points:
So in my opinion, I feel that when you are looking to market a 4 bedroom Condo/EC, it also takes a certain amount of buying power to be purchasing it especially in the Outside Central Region.
If we consider the usual HDB upgraders, the highest percentage of owners are usually living in a 4-room or 5-room type HDB apartment with 3 proper bedrooms. This translates to a 3 bedroom type setup for a Condo/EC unit to have possibly the biggest market. And like in our 4 bedroom Prive unit, the difference in price quantum is about $300,000 from the 3 bedroom type.
Unless they need an upgrade perhaps to live with their folks(grandparents), or need 4 proper bedrooms for their 3rd/4th child or need a study room, they probably wouldn’t consider this 4 bedroom setup.
Another thing is to consider the buying power of the potential buyers. Looking at the Punggol HDB transactions – a typical 4 to 5-room HDB resale flat ranges from 350k to 550k on average based on the age, floor level, etc. of the property.
Another potential group of buyers would be the folks looking perhaps to right size to a smaller property as their kids are grown up, in the workforce and have moved out. They just want to move to a property that is easier to maintain and upkeep.
Marc Chan
Listings Lead
Buyer Consultant
Home Tour Presenter
