SINGAPORE- Overall private home prices in Singapore fell 1.5 per cent in the third quarter from the second quarter, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released on Friday (Oct 28).

This is the 12th straight quarter of price decline following a slew of property cooling measures that have crimped demand for private homes and put a lid on prices.

Third quarter's price drop was markedly higher than the 0.4 per cent dip in the previous quarter. It was unchanged from flash estimate released by URA earlier this month.

Sales of new private homes (excluding ECs) fell 12 per cent in the third quarter to 1,981 units from 2,256 units in the second quarter.

Rentals of private homes also saw a steeper drop of 1.2 per cent in the July-September period, compared to the 0.6 per cent decline in the previous quarter, URA's data showed.

The steeper price decline in the third quarter was partly due to a tweak in the methodology URA uses to compute its private-property price indices. To enhance market transparency, URA's latest data include for the first time the net sales prices of de-licensed projects - as opposed to gross prices that might include discounts and rebates.

De-licensed projects are those that have obtained the Certificate of Statutory Completion and where individual titles have been issued.

Prices of non-landed homes in the core central region declined by 1.9 per cent, while those in the city fringe and suburbs both fell by 1 per cent.

Developers launched 1,609 uncompleted private residential units (excluding ECs) for sale in third quarter 2016, down about a third from the 2,371 units in the April to June period.

As at the end of third quarter, there was a total supply of 43,693 uncompleted private residential units (excluding ECs) in the pipeline, compared to the 47,250 units in the previous quarter.

URA said 20,577 units remained unsold as at September 30.