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SINGAPORE — Singapore’s residential market has achieved a better balance between sellers and buyers, according to a blog post by Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan today.
As supply-demand rebalances, property prices are adjusting, Mr Khaw wrote. While last year was the “first full year which saw home prices in decline”, which was a relief for home sellers and home owners, Mr Khaw pointed out that “the decline was moderate”. “A collapse of housing market benefits no one,” he added.
In the wake of property cooling measures developers have begun to offer higher percentage price discounts in an attempt to offload stock, making upgrading to condominium living a tempting option for HDB owners. Using 5-room HDB owners as a case study, we examine if now is the right time for HDB upgraders to cash out of their flats, and invest in the private condominium market. To measure the ease of upgrading by HDB owners, we looked at the upgrade premium, which is the difference between median HDB resale price per square feet (psf) and median condominium resale price psf of equivalent sizes, i.e. 100 - 120 sq m or 1,076 -1,292sqft for each quarter.
Resale prices of non-landed private homes fell 1.3 per cent from the previous month, while resale volume was flat, according to flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange.
SINGAPORE: The resale prices for non-landed private homes continued its downward trend in July, falling 1.3 per cent month-on-month, according to flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) on Monday (Aug 11).
SRX said the decline represented a 21-month low since October 2012 and the fall in prices was felt in all three regions. Prices for the Core Central Region fell the most with 4 per cent, while Rest of Central Region and Outside Central Region dropped 1.1 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively.
June's headline 73 percent plunge in Singapore's new home sales may look worrying, but some analysts are pointing the blame at the World Cup.
"We didn't see many launches by developers, mainly because of the June school holidays and also there has been an impact from the World Cup on the property market," said Donald Han, managing director at property consultant Chestertons. "Even in the stock market, there was a softer period in terms of trading activity."
Good deals for owner occupiers
With property prices finally losing steam, home buyers may be wondering whether it is the right time to take the plunge.
Both the private and public housing markets have begun to slow down, as sales volumes tumble and prices turn downwards.
Analysts expect the property market to sink further this year owing to a triple whammy of weak demand, an expected rise in interest rates and looming oversupply.
Buying volume likely to improve.
According to Colliers International, taking into consideration the healthy interest seen during the launch of Lakeville in early April, primary market sales volume is expected to climb to the region of 500-800 units in April before improving further in the following months.
Here's more:
Developers gearing up for more launches.
According to Colliers International, as developers gear up for more launches, primary market sales volume is expected to remain in the region of 600-900 units in March before improving further in the following months.
Notwithstanding the improvement in launch and sales volume in February, it appears that the market is slowly approaching a stable state following the implementation of the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) in June 2013, cooling off from the exuberance seen in 2012 and 1H 2013.
Chief economist sees smaller home supply in long term
"As long as interest rates remain where they are now, that would be too premature."
Instead, it is more probable that the government would reduce the number of private homes and HDB flats that will come onstream in the longer term, he added.
The Government will implement three measures for Executive Condominium (EC) developments to bring the terms for ECs closer to that for public housing, and help support a stable and sustainable EC market. This follows a review by MND on the EC Housing Scheme, taking into account feedback from the Our Singapore Conversation on Housing.
THE number of Housing Board flats being sold below valuation has rocketed, as tighter mortgage rules eat into demand.
According to HDB's latest figures, 105 units were sold in October for less than their appraisal. This accounted for 7 per cent of the total resale volume, a marked increase on the average 0.3 per cent for each month of the first half of the year.
This means around four times as many flats were sold below valuation in October alone than over the whole of January to June, when there was an average of five such transactions every month.
HDB COV prices have been dropping over recent months. COV was $15000 and $12000 in September and October respectively and is predicted by some to fall to $10000 by year's end. HDB prices have dropped 1.6% in October compared with a small 0.2% gain in September which correlates with the rise in the number of resale HDB units in October, a 26.5% increase over September.
