Shophouse Market Ends Quiet Year 2024 84 Caveated Transactions Huttons
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Huttons Asia reports that the shophouse market has been relatively quiet in 2024, with only 84 caveated transactions recorded. This number is below the average of 200 shophouse deals per year between 1995 and 2023. Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia, notes that while many buyers did not lodge caveats, 2024 has likely seen the lowest number of shophouse deals since 1998.
The total value of the 84 caveated shophouse transactions in 2024 was $683.6 million, a 38.9% decrease from the previous year’s deal value of $1.1 billion. However, Lee points out that a number of significant shophouse transactions were not caveated last year, including properties on Amoy Street, Neil Road, North Bridge Road, and Telok Ayer Street, which he estimates were sold for over $200 million. The largest shophouse deal in 2024 was Paragon REIT’s sale of The Rail Mall for $78.5 million in June. This is likely the biggest shophouse deal ever recorded, surpassing the previous high of $74.8 million paid for a row of shophouses along Jalan Sultan in March 2022.
The Rail Mall shophouses were valued at $62 million as of December 2023, meaning the seller likely made a profit of around $16.5 million on the sale. Most of the shophouse deals in 2024 were for smaller amounts, with over half of the caveated deals falling between $5 million and $15 million. Additionally, nearly half of the shophouse transactions in 2024 took place in District 8, which Lee attributes to its desirable city-fringe location and lower prices compared to Districts 1 and 2.
Meanwhile, shophouse rents across Singapore saw a 2.6% decrease in the fourth quarter of 2024, settling at $6.47 per square foot per month. However, for the whole year, shophouse rents were up 1.7%. Two conservation shophouses on Telok Ayer Street were also put on the market for $42 million in 2024.
