Younger, older HDB resale flats see slower price decline in Q3

Younger, older HDB resale flats see slower price decline in Q3

Prices for older flats fell 0.9%, from 3.4% dip in year-ago period; younger flats saw 2.5% fall, from 4.8% in Q3 2018

Thu, Nov 07, 2019

RACHEL MUI


THE price slide of both younger and older flats slowed in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2018, OrangeTee & Tie said on Wednesday in its latest quarterly report on HDB trends.

According to the report, younger flats are defined as those less than 10 years old, while older flats are defined as those 40 years and above.

While demand for HDB resale flats remained strong in the third quarter buoyed by recent policies, the prices of younger and older flats declined quarter on quarter (q-o-q) in Q3 2019.

That said, the rate of depreciation had slowed significantly as compared to a year ago, OrangeTee noted.

For older flats, prices fell 0.9 per cent q-o-q in Q3 2019, as opposed to a 3.4 per cent dip in the preceding year.

"The slower price depreciation seemed to indicate that sentiment towards older flats might have improved in recent months," the report highlighted.

Similarly for younger flats, prices tumbled at a slower rate of 2.5 per cent q-o-q in Q3 2019, as compared to a 4.8 per cent decline in the year-ago period.

This price weakness was mainly due to more flats being sold within 10 years of completion in recent years, OrangeTee said.

It added that there were also more flats sold in non-mature estates, which may have brought down the overall average price of younger flats in recent years.

To illustrate, 81.9 per cent of younger-flat transactions in the first three quarters this year were in the non-mature estates, as opposed to 51.5 per cent in 2015.

For the quarter, the number of younger flats sold jumped 12.4 per cent to 1,247 units, up from 1,109 units last year. This represents the highest number of new resale flats being transacted in a single quarter since Q3 2010.

"The data may indicate that more families could be 'cashing out' on their flats earlier to upgrade to private property or a bigger HDB flat.

"Some owners may have sold their flats early for fear that the value of their flats would fall with age," OrangeTee said.

"With more flats reaching their five-year minimum occupation period, we may expect the number of younger flat transactions to rise further in the coming months. As competition for potential buyers may intensify with the rising supply of flats, there could be some downward pressure on the prices of younger flats," it added.