Condo resale prices slip for 2nd month after property curbs

Prices dip 0.2%, number of transactions also down: SRX estimates

Resale prices of private non-landed homes declined again last month as July’s cooling measures continued to bite.

Condominium and private apartment prices dipped 0.2 per cent from August to last month, according to flash estimates from SRX Property yesterday.

That followed a 0.3 per cent dip in August – revised up a tad from the earlier estimate of 0.2 per cent.

The declines since August have broken a 12-month run of rising resale prices.

Prices are now down 0.5 per cent from their peak in July, when the new property curbs were announced, but are still up 10.8 per cent from September last year.

Resale prices in the suburbs – known as the outside central region – actually recorded a month-on-month increase of 0.5 per cent last month.

But this was offset by price falls of 1.2 per cent in the prime or central region, and a 0.8 per cent dip in the city fringes or rest of central region.

The cooling measures continued to hit sales: Some 702 non-landed private homes were resold last month, 0.7 per cent down from the 707 moved in August.

Transactions have fallen more sharply year on year: Resales last month were down 44.3 per cent from 1,260 in the same month last year.

OrangeTee & Tie research and consultancy head Christine Sun said the fall in demand could be due to slower sales during the Hungry Ghost Festival, the cooling measures and a divergence in price expectations between buyers and sellers.

She said: “Potential buyers may... be expecting resale prices to moderate. Sellers, on the other hand, may be reluctant to drop prices as the economy is strong and the job market is still healthy.”

She also noted that sales are usually slower in the latter part of the year as people go on holidays.

SRX data also showed that the premium buyers were prepared to pay over market value inched up last month after tumbling following the July property curbs.

The SRX’s overall median transaction over X-value (TOX) rose to $1,000 last month, up from zero in August and after it sank to $4,000 in July from $17,000 in June.

TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying or underpaying on a property based on SRX Property’s computer-generated market value.

District 9’s Orchard, Cairnhill and River Valley, and Upper Bukit Timah and Ulu Pandan in District 21, posted the highest TOX of $20,000 among districts with more than 10 resale transactions.

District 4’s Telok Blangah and HarbourFront posted the lowest TOX of negative $105,000.

This article first appeared in The Straits Times on 10 Oct 2018.