SINGAPORE: Prices of private residential properties in Singapore decreased 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said on Friday (Apr 26).
The previous quarter saw a 0.1 per cent decrease.
The dip this quarter is a notch higher than the 0.6 per cent decrease in URA’s flash estimates released on Apr 1.
Prices of landed properties rose by 1.1 per cent during this period, up from the 2 per cent decrease in the last quarter of 2018. Non-landed property prices declined 1.1 per cent, compared with the 0.5 per cent increase in the previous quarter.
In the Core Central Region (CCR), prices of non-landed properties decreased by 3 per cent, higher than the 1 per cent decrease in the previous quarter. In the Rest of Central Region (RCR), non-landed home prices fell 0.7 per cent, while it increased 0.2 per cent in the Outside Central Region (OCR).
READ: Private home prices rise by 7.9% in 2018, while HDB resale prices fall
READ: Commentary: Who’s buying private property after last year’s cooling measures
PRIVATE HOME RENTS UP 1 PER CENT
Rentals of private residential properties increased 1 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, up from a 1 per cent decrease in the previous quarter.
Landed property rental prices rose 0.2 per cent this quarter, up from the 2.1 per cent decrease in Q4 2019. Non-landed property rentals also increased, by 1.1 per cent, compared with the 0.8 per cent decrease in the previous quarter.
Non-landed property rentals in the CCR and OCR went up, by 1.6 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, rentals in the RCR declined 0.3 per cent.
Developers launched 2,989 uncompleted private residential units for sale in the first quarter of 2019, more than the 1,657 units launched in the previous quarter. This number excludes executive condominiums (ECs).
Of these, 1,838 private residential units were sold, slightly higher than the 1,836 in the previous quarter.
No executive condominiums were launched for sale, but developers sold 10 units from previous launches.
There were 1,858 properties resold in the first quarter of 2019, a slight dip from the previous quarter’s 1,971. Resale transactions accounted for 49.6 per cent of all private property sales, down from 51.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
Additionally, there were 47 sub-sale transactions in the last quarter, a decrease from the 53 units transacted in the previous quarter. Sub-sale transactions made up 1.3 per cent of all sale transactions, compared with 1.4 per cent the previous quarter.
A total of 53,284 uncompleted private residential units (excluding ECs) are in the pipeline with planning approvals as at the end of the first quarter of 2019, more than the 51,498 in the previous quarter.
By the end of the latest quarter, 36,839 of these units remain unsold, up from 34,824 units in the previous quarter.
URA said 7,745 units (including ECs) will be completed by the end of 2019, based on the expected completion dates reported by developers.
