SINGAPORE - Private home values sank further in the fourth quarter last year, continuing a losing streak which has been par for the course since cooling measures and stricter mortgage rules hammered the market.

Prices fell 1 per cent in the three months to Dec 31 from the preceding quarter, flash figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed on Friday. This is higher than the 0.7 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

For the whole of 2014, prices are down 4 per cent.

Private home prices have fallen for five straight quarters and have shed 4.9 per cent in the process.

Preliminary estimates from analysts before Friday's data had placed the full-year decline at 4 per cent.

The experts also tipped that new home sales for the full year were likely to be soft at 8,000 to 9,000 units - the lowest since 2008 and well under the 17,590 transactions in 2013. Official figures from the URA will be out on Jan 15.

URA's latest data showed that prices of non-landed private residential properties declined in all market segments in the fourth quarter.

In the prime or core central region (CCR), prices fell 0.9 per cent, higher than the 0.8 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Prices in the rest of central region (RCR) fell 1.2 per cent, higher than the 0.4 per cent previously, while prices in the suburbs or outside central region (OCR) fell 0.9 per cent, higher than the 0.3 per cent decline in the third quarter.

For the whole of 2014, prices in CCR, RCR and OCR have fallen by 4.1 per cent, 5.2 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively.

Prices of landed properties fell 1.1 per cent compared to the 1.8 per cent decline in the previous quarter. For the whole of 2014, prices of landed properties fell by 5.2 per cent.