HDB resale prices fall again in November, transactions down after rising for two months

Housing Board resale prices fell in November, and the number of transactions slipped after having risen in the previous two months, according to flash figures from Singapore Real Estate Exchange. -- ST PHOTO: JAMIE KOH
Housing Board resale prices fell in November, and the number of transactions slipped after having risen in the previous two months, according to flash figures from Singapore Real Estate Exchange. -- ST PHOTO: JAMIE KOH

SINGAPORE - Housing Board resale prices fell 0.8 per cent in November, and the number of transactions slipped after having risen in the previous two months, according to flash figures from Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) on Thursday.

Prices fell across all flat types, dipping 0.8 per cent, 1.2 per cent, 0.2 per cent and 2.2 per cent for three-, four-, five-room and executive flats respectively.

There were 1,350 resale flats sold in November, down 13.1 per cent from the 1,553 transactions in October. However, this was still 11.4 per cent more than the 1,212 units sold in November 2013.

Resale prices are at a 40-month low since August 2011. They have fallen 9.8 per cent since their peak in April 2013.

The latest figures also show that an apparent price rise last month was not actually the case. In the initial figures for October, the SRX HDB price index edged up 0.1 per cent after eight consecutive months of decline.

But in the updated figures on Thursday, the resale index was shown to have actually fallen 0.1 per cent in October instead. This means that November's 0.8 per cent fall is the tenth in a row.

November's resale market slump also meant that resale buyers were once more paying less than SRX's estimated market value for their flats.

In October, for the first time in 19 months, resale buyers were paying a median sum of $1,000 more than SRX's estimated market value or 'X-Value'. But in November, buyers were paying a median of $3,000 under X-Value instead.

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