Singapore private homes prices fall for 7th straight quarter, down 0.9% in Q2: URA flash estimates

Condominiums in the Scotts Road and Cairnhill area. ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

SINGAPORE - The overall private residential property index fell by 0.9 per cent in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, according to flash estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Wednesday.

Private home prices have now fallen for seven continuous quarters, making it the longest losing streak in 13 years, as tighter mortgage curbs continue to cool demand,

Prices are estimated to be down 6.7 per cent from their peak in the third quarter of 2013.

The estimated drop in the second quarter is within expectations, given prices had slipped to the 1.0 per cent in the first quarter.

They are estimated to have declined 3.7 per cent from a year back.

Prices of non-landed private residential properties declined in all market segments. In the Core Central Region (CCR), prices fell 0.5 per cent, higher than the 0.4 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Prices in Rest of Central Region (RCR) fell 0.5 per cent, compared to the 1.7 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

In Outside Central Region (OCR), prices fell 1.2 per cent, higher than the 1.1 per cent decline in the previous quarter (see Annex B).

The flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in contracts submitted for stamp duty payment and survey data on new units sold by developers during the first ten weeks of the quarter.

The statistics will be updated 4 weeks later when URA releases the full real estate statistics for second quarter 2015, which captures more data from the stamp duty records and the take-up of new projects.

Past data have shown that the difference between the quarterly price changes indicated by the flash estimate and the actual price changes could be significant when the change is small, said URA.

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