HDB resale prices dip 0.6% in February
SINGAPORE — Resale prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats dipped 0.6 per cent month-on-month in February, after edging up slightly in January, bringing prices 5.7 per cent lower than a year ago.
A flash report from SRX Property released yesterday showed that prices were driven down by three-room, four-room and executive flats, with three-room flats reporting the largest decline of 1.2 per cent.
Prices of four-room and executive flats dipped 0.6 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively, while prices of five-room flats remained unchanged from January.
Prices had inched up 0.2 per cent in January compared with December. Mr Nicholas Mak, SLP International Property Consultants executive director of research and consultancy, said: “Such price increase is simply not sustainable in the current market condition, which is shaped by loan curbs and market cooling measures.”
Resale prices in both mature and non-mature estates also saw declines of 0.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively, last month, compared with January. Chris International director Chris Koh said the close difference was a sign that the price decline was starting to slow down.
On the other hand, compared with February last year, mature-estate prices fell 3.2 per cent, while non-mature-estate prices fell 7.6 per cent. Property agency OrangeTee’s research and consultancy manager Wong Xian Yang said this was a testament to the resilience of mature-estate prices in a bearish market.
The overall median transaction over X-value (TOX) remained negative at –S$4,000, indicating that buyers were still paying below the SRX estimated market value. This was a S$3,000 drop from –S$1,000 in January.
About 1,148 flats were sold last month, compared with 1,255 units transacted in January.
Property analysts said the 8.5 per cent plunge in resale volume was expected, given that many people were preoccupied with Chinese New Year celebrations last month.
Still, the figure was 20.7 per cent higher compared with a year ago, when 951 units were resold in February last year.
Mr Wong said: “We may see resale volumes continue to increase as prices become more attractive and more public and private residential units achieve completion. The lower supply of new Build-to-Order flats in 2015 will also be positive for the resale market.”
Mr Koh said he did not expect prices to rise in the short term as a result of more buyers returning to the market, as home owners will be collecting their keys for new homes and selling existing flats, ensuring sufficient supply of resale flats.
“I expect prices to remain soft for another two quarters ... I’m looking forward only to a stabilisation of prices in the second half of this year,” he added.
While there may be a possibility that the Government could adjust certain policies that could bring some relief to HDB flat-sellers, Mr Mak said he still expected prices to continue their downward trend.
“For the whole of 2015, the HDB resale price index is expected to decrease by 4.5 per cent to 8 per cent year-on-year,” he said.
