http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/arch...etter-20130126

Published January 26, 2013

OCR completed condos fared better

By Kalpana Rashiwala


IN the private residential segment, the prices of completed, non-landed private homes in the Outside Central Region (OCR) led fourth-quarter gains, rising 5.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter last year.

In the price indices compiled by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the index for uncompleted homes in the OCR inched up at less than half the pace: 2.4 per cent.

The OCR covers suburbs such as Punggol, Woodlands and Jurong, where mass-market condominiums are located.

This pattern - where the rise in price was higher for resale, non-landed homes than for uncompleted ones - was generally replicated across the island in 2012.

Prices in the OCR for completed homes climbed 8.8 per cent last year, double the 4.4 per cent appreciation for uncompleted properties. This also happened in 2011, when a 10 per cent surge in completed home prices was double the 5.1 per cent rise posted for uncompleted homes.

Colliers director Chia Siew Chuin said: "Amid persistently high prices in new project launches, buyers have been looking to alternatives in the resale market."

Knight Frank chairman Tan Tiong Cheng said: "Prices of completed properties transacted in the resale market, with their lower base prices, are catching up with the rising prices at new launches.

"With prices at new mass-market condo launches currently at high levels, more homebuyers have been opting for resale properties. The higher demand has contributed to rising resale prices. As long as new sale prices remain high, resale private home prices are likely to stay elevated."

In the Core Central Region - which includes the prime districts 9, 10 and 11, the financial district and Sentosa - URA's completed non-landed home price index rose 1.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q4 2012. For uncompleted homes, the figure dipped 0.4 per cent.

For the full year 2012, completed home prices gained 3.2 per cent, against a 1.7 per cent decline for uncompleted properties.

In the Rest of Central Region, which covers city-fringe locations, prices for both completed and uncompleted homes rose an identical one per cent q-on-q in Q4. Yet, for full-year 2012 and 2011, the prices of completed non-landed properties in the region still rose more than for uncompleted ones.

URA's overall private home price index - covering both completed and uncompleted as well as landed and non-landed homes across the island - rose 1.8 per cent in Q4.

This was a bigger gain than Q3's increase of 0.6 per cent. Full-year 2012, the index appreciated 2.8 per cent, half the 5.9 per cent rise in 2011.

CBRE Research's associate director Desmond Sim said further downward pressure is expected when the market feels the full effects of the latest property cooling measures in the coming months; the total private home sales volume in the primary and secondary markets is likely to fall 10-15 per cent in 2013.

He said: "Some investors will exit real estate for now, while others may adopt a wait-and-see approach in the interim."