HDB resale volume jumps almost 30% in second quarter

Sat, Jul 27, 2019


THE number of Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats that changed hands in the second quarter of 2019 grew nearly 30 per cent as compared with the first three months of the year, latest public housing figures showed.

There were 6,276 resale transactions in the second quarter of the year, up 29.8 per cent from the 4,835 deals in the first quarter, according to the HDB, which released the data on Friday.

This year's figure was also 5.6 per cent higher than the resale transactions in the second quarter of last year.

The resale price index fell by 0.2 per cent, from 131 in the first quarter of the year to 130.8 in the three months that followed.

Five-room flats in Toa Payoh fetched the highest median resale price at S$839,000, followed by those in Queenstown at S$815,000 and Bukit Merah at S$780,000.

ERA Realty's key executive officer Eugene Lim noted that buyers are not being compelled to pay high premiums as resale prices have largely stabilised.

"This is likely to continue to attract more buyers, especially those who have more urgent housing needs to consider resale over new flats," he said.

"Buyers who are upgrading or need to move to another location due to work or school reasons are also likely to capitalise on the stability in the market to make their move. We are likely to continue to see a steady flow in resale volume over the rest of the year."

He added that for the whole of 2019, the HDB resale price index "is not expected to decline significantly", and that the resale price index could end the year between 0.6 per cent and one per cent lower than a year ago."

Stable resale HDB prices could translate into more resale transactions for the rest of 2019, said Mr Lim, adding that the first six months of the year already saw an increase of 6.8 per cent over the same period last year.

"Should the current momentum continue, we may see a 7 to 9 per cent increase in total resale volume for 2019 over 2018," he said.

Meanwhile, the latest figures also showed that HDB approved 4.8 per cent more applications to rent out flats in the second quarter of the year. It approved 12,335 applications, up from the 11,775 in the first quarter of the year.

The number of approved applications to rent out HDB flats was 2.6 per cent higher in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same quarter in the previous year.

As at June 30, there were 58,528 flats being rented out, an increase of 1.3 per cent over the 57,764 in the first quarter of this year.

OrangeTee & Tie's head of research and consultancy Christine Sun said the increase in rental applications is "within expectation".

"The second quarter of the year is usually a peak rental season and more flats are now eligible to be leased after reaching their five-year MOP (minimum occupation period)," she said.

The highest median rent recorded was for five-roomers in Queenstown, at S$2,800. This was followed closely by five-room units in Bukit Merah at S$2,730, and four-room flats in the central at S$2,700.

HDB also said that it will be offering about 3,300 Build-To-Order flats in Punggol and Tampines in August, as well as about 4,500 BTO flats in Ang Mo Kio, Tampines and Tengah in November.

There will also be concurrent Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF) and Sale of Balance Flats exercises in August and November.

ROF flats that have not been selected remain available for open booking by eligible home buyers throughout the year. More details are available on the HDB InfoWEB.