http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...ghtly-20120929

August resale property prices up slightly

1% rise overall, with non-central private homes faring the best

Published on Sep 29, 2012

By Amanda Tan


RESALE prices of private homes inched up across the board last month, reversing the overall fall in July as buyers were lured by new project launches.

Prices picked up 1 per cent overall, according to flash figures from the Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) yesterday, after a 0.6 per cent overall fall in July.

The statistics are compiled by the National University of Singapore, and track a basket of completed non-landed projects.

Resale prices of non-central flats rose 1.5 per cent last month, the best performer for the month and a reversal of the 0.6 per cent drop recorded in July.

Central region home prices increased 0.5 per cent, rebounding from the 0.5 per cent fall the previous month.

Prices of "shoebox" units - typically 500 sq ft and less - rose 0.8 per cent, the same increase recorded in July.

Savills Singapore research head Alan Cheong attributed the price increases to the new launches.

He added: "Developers have the pricing power... when they are successful in selling the units, it will also lift the prices of other homes within the neighbourhood."

He expects resale prices to increase for the next couple of months, noting that July's overall decrease was an anomaly.

R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng pointed out that buyers with budget concerns and those unable to secure choice units in new launches are increasingly open to options in the secondary market.

Mr Nicholas Mak, SLP International's research head, said non-central homes have had the strongest resale price growth in the past 12 months.

Although the prices for this segment have posted declines in some months during that period, the overall values have increased by 4.5 per cent year-on-year, he said.

Mr Mak noted that the stock market was in "positive territory" in July.

"If we take the stock market as a measure of investor confidence, then we see more people buying homes... and exercising the option to buy in August," he said.

Buying sentiment is still healthy, going by the crowds seen at showflats and the take-up rates in the primary market.

"The buying momentum will spill over to the secondary market," he added.

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