Private home prices fell for the first time in nearly two years in the last quarter of 2013 as a raft of curbs took their toll on the market.

The previously buoyant mass-market segment also succumbed to gravity for the first time since 2009.

Overall private home prices fell 0.8 per cent in October through December from the preceding three months, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority flash estimates released on Thursday.

This was a reversal of the 0.4 per cent increase in the third quarter this year from the preceding quarter. As a whole, private home prices grew 1.2 per cent in 2013, which was less than the 2.8 per cent increase in 2012, the URA said.

The decline was greatest in the city centre which saw prices of non-landed private homes drop 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter last year from the preceding three months. This was a sharper drop than the 0.3 per cent decline in the third quarter.

Suburban non-landed private home prices slid 0.6 per cent in October through December from the preceding quarter, after having climbed 2.2 per cent in July through September.

This was the first time they have fallen since the second quarter of 2009.

The price drops outweighed an increase in the prices of non-landed homes in the city fringe. They grew 0.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, which followed after a 0.9 per cent decline in the third quarter from the preceding three months.