HDB resale prices up 0.6% in November

HDB resale prices up 0.6% in November

It's the largest m-o-m increase this year despite a smaller number changing hands: SRX

FRI, DEC 06, 2019


HOUSING and Development Board (HDB) resale prices have notched their biggest month-on-month (m-o-m) increase this year despite a smaller number changing hands, according to flash data from real estate portal SRX Property on Thursday.

Resale prices, which through most of 2019 have moved within a -0.2 to +0.2 per cent range, rose 0.6 per cent in November from October. It is the biggest monthly increase since January's 0.5 per cent rise from December 2018.

Compared to November last year, resale prices are up by 0.4 per cent, though they are still off by 13.8 per cent from their peak in April 2013.

Prices in non-mature estates rose by 2 per cent year-on-year. Those in mature estates fell 2 per cent.

Compared to October, three-room, four-room and executive flats saw price increases of 0.1 per cent, 1.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively, while prices of five-room flats fell by 0.1 per cent.

Non-mature estates' prices increased by 1 per cent while mature estates' prices stayed flat.

The volume of sales cooled in November after October saw a jump in the number of resales, following higher grants and income ceilings for first-time buyers that kicked in the previous month.

In all, 1,915 HDB resale flats changed hands last month, a 13.5 per cent drop from October's 2,213. However, compared with a year ago, the resale volume was 1.6 per cent higher.

Four-room flats made up 42.5 per cent of the resale units sold last month. Five-room flats accounted for 24.8 per cent and three-room flats 23.6 per cent, while executive flats made up 6.8 per cent. The rest were multi-generation and two-room flats.

SRX forecasts that in the next three months, 4,432 flats will be put on the resale market as they approach their five-year minimum occupation period.

The most expensive resale flat that changed hands last month was a high-floor five-room flat at Commonwealth Drive in Queenstown, which sold for S$1.08 million.

A premium maisonette unit in Choa Chu Kang Street 64 was sold for S$900,000, the highest price in a non-mature estate.

Resale flat buyers last month underpaid according to what SRX estimates to be the market value for flats. The overall median transaction over X-value (TOX) was negative S$1,000 last month.

TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying (positive value) or underpaying (negative value) for a property based on SRX's computer-generated market value. The data includes only districts with more than 10 resale transactions.

HDB executive flats recorded zero TOX while three-room, four-room and five-room units recorded negative median TOX of S$3,000, S$1,000 and S$1,000 respectively.

Flats in Sembawang recorded the highest median TOX at positive S$11,000, while those in Ang Mo Kio and Jurong East recorded the lowest median TOX, at negative S$11,000. THE STRAITS TIMES