Housing Board resale transactions resumed the downtrend amid the Chinese New Year lull last month, after chalking up the first month-on-month increase in sales in January since last July's cooling measures.

Last month, 1,313 HDB resale flats changed hands, 15.8 per cent down from January, according to flash estimates from real estate portal SRX Property yesterday. Year on year, February's sales volume was up 9.9 per cent.

HDB resale prices remained unchanged from January. Compared with February last year, prices declined by 0.5 per cent and were 13.9 per cent down from the peak in April 2013.

Noting that sellers are generally taking a longer time to offload their HDB flats, OrangeTee & Tie research head Christine Sun said: "The slower sales may be attributed mainly to the Chinese New Year festivities and lingering concerns about the depreciating leases of ageing flats."

Ms Sun said HDB resale prices have fallen faster than private home prices in recent months and this could have widened the price gap between them. Competition may also have stiffened for sellers due to the increased supply of HDB flats reaching the five-year minimum occupation period, she added.

The premium that buyers were prepared to pay over market value last month also showed no change. The amount - as measured by SRX's computer-generated overall median transaction over X-value (TOX) - stayed at negative $1,000.

Woodlands posted the highest median TOX among HDB towns, with more than 10 resale transactions at $5,000, while mature estate Toa Payoh had the lowest TOX of negative $16,000.