Singapore condo resale prices up 1.9% in Feb; units sold rise 11.3%: SRX

Wed, Mar 14, 2018

Nisha Ramchandani


RESALE prices of condominiums and private apartments in Singapore continued to accelerate last month surpassing the last peak in prices seen in January 2014, according to flash estimates from SRX Property on Tuesday.

Prices in February rose 1.9 per cent from the previous month - higher than the 1.3 per cent month-on-month price rise seen in January, which was revised up from an earlier estimate of a 1 per cent increase. This was also the seventh consecutive month of growth for the resale property price index.

February's resale prices were 1 per cent higher than the peak in January 2014 and 7.6 per cent higher than a year ago, said real estate portal SRX.

The price appreciation was seen across all locations. The core central region (CCR), rest of the central region (RCR), and outside central region (OCR) recorded month-on-month price increases of 1.5 per cent, 1.7 per cent, and 2.2 per cent respectively.

Compared to a year ago, CCR, RCR, and OCR recorded price increases of 6.2 per cent, 11 per cent, and 6.2 per cent respectively.

In another sign of a strengthening market, the number of resale non-landed private homes sold last month jumped 11.3 per cent from January, with 1,212 units sold, said SRX. Year-on-year, resale volume in February was 68.6 per cent higher compared to 719 units resold in the corresponding month a year ago, but nearly 41 per cent lower than the April 2010 peak.

Market watchers said that the rebound did not come as a surprise.

Nicholas Mak, executive director of the ZACD Group, noted that rising demand for the resale housing market is partly driven by positive sentiments in the property market and limited major new launches in the primary market in recent months. He went on to say: "The ongoing residential collective sale transactions also fuelled buying demand in the resale market."

Commenting on the outlook for the property market, Mr Mak said: "The positive market sentiments in recent months are expected to keep home buying demand healthy. This would in turn boost the buying activity in the private residential resale market."

However, he added that there could be a lag before those whose properties have gone en bloc purchase one from the private residential resale market as this group of buyers will need to wait a few months until the sales proceeds come in. Nonetheless, these buyers would ultimately prefer completed properties "so that they could move in almost immediately".