Singapore condo prices fall again in November as cooling measures continue biting

Treasure Trove at Punggol Walk. Prices of non-landed private homes here fell in November as fewer homes changed hands in a property market reined in by cooling measures, flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) showed on Tuesday.
Treasure Trove at Punggol Walk. Prices of non-landed private homes here fell in November as fewer homes changed hands in a property market reined in by cooling measures, flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) showed on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Prices of non-landed private homes here fell in November as fewer homes changed hands in a property market reined in by cooling measures, flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) showed on Tuesday.

Resale home values fell 1.1 per cent from October, dragging prices down by 3.4 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

This came as just 388 condo units were transacted on the resale market last month - down 22.4 per cent from October.

Since the the recent peak in prices in January, resale home prices have fallen 6.3 per cent, said SRX.

"We can project, with reasonable certainty, that demand will continue to be anaemic and prices will be relatively stubborn until there is a significant change to the cooling measures, interest rates, supply, or an external shock, or some combination of the above,'' said Mr Sam Baker, chief executive of SRX.

However, Mr Baker acknowledged that the impact of individual transactions on the index is more pronounced in a market with just a handful of sales.

Analysis of market activity "at the street level" requires more analysis instead, he said.

SRX, which compiles its index from data collected from real estate agencies, noted that the cooling measures have not had the same effect on buyers and sellers across the board.

About 50 per cent of last month's buyers purchased their resale units above the estimated market value of the property, labelled as its "X-Value". This was mainly in district 9, where the median value of transactions above the X-Value was $80,000.

District 22 was next with $30,000, followed by district 11 at $15,000.

Buyers in district 5 paid the least below the property's market value at $40,000, followed by $20,000 in district 16 and $15,000 in district 19.

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