Private home & HDB resale flat prices rise in Q3

Private home & HDB resale flat prices rise in Q3
Posted: 29 October 2012 1022 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore's private home prices in the third quarter rose 0.6 per cent from the previous quarter.

This is the highest rate of increase this year compared to the 0.1-per cent drop in the first quarter and the 0.4-per cent increase in the second quarter.

It was also higher than the flash estimate of 0.5 per cent released earlier this month.

Meanwhile, resale prices of Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats in Singapore hit a record high.

HDB's Resale Price Index (RPI) rose from 194 in the second quarter of this year to 197.9 in the third quarter.

This represents an increase of two per cent over the previous quarter, the same as that of the flash estimate released on 1 October.

Growth for the first three quarters of this year is 3.9 per cent.

This is lower than the annual RPI growth of 14.1 per cent in 2010, and 10.7 per cent last year.

"With private property prices still rising, it's no surprise that HDB prices will follow suit," said Mr Chris Koh, housing analyst and director of Chris International.

"We saw quite a number of people who wanted to buy a property, aspired to own one, but when they could not afford it anymore, they instead decided to buy in the HDB resale market. They chose particularly larger flats: five-room flats, executive flats, and this could have pushed percentage prices up."

The volume of resale transactions also fell for the first time in 12 months. Resale transactions also fell by about 6 per cent from 7,011 cases in second quarter to 6,560 cases in the third.

The last fall in resale transactions was in the third quarter of last year when transactions fell from 6,581 in the second quarter, to 5,903 in the third.

HDB will offer 27,000 BTO flats in 2012 - 2,000 units more than the original 25,000 planned this year.

This is the largest BTO supply in a year.

In the rental market, subletting transactions rose by about four per cent.

The number of cases increased from 6,891 in the second quarter to 7,142 cases in the third quarter.

The total number of HDB flats approved for subletting also rose to 42,920 units in the third quarter, compared to 41,814 units in the second.

The HDB said it introduced a new e-service on Monday to enable the public to search for the market rentals of entire HDB flats rented out by owners.

- CNA/xq


- wong chee tat :)