Private home prices in Singapore continue to rise.
UPDATED: Private home prices rose by 3.1 percent during the first quarter of 2018, up from the 0.8 percent increase seen in the previous quarter, according to flash estimates released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday (2 Apr).
“This marked the third straight quarter of price growth since the private residential property index bottomed in Q2 2017. It is also the strongest quarterly increase since the 5.2 percent quarter-on-quarter rise in Q2 2010,” said Colliers International’s research head for Singapore, Tricia Song.
With this, the index gained 4.6 percent on an annual basis and private home prices are now down 7.5 percent since a peak in Q3 2013.
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The sharper-than-expected price hike in Q1 was driven by broad-based recovery in home values across all regions. In particular, prices of non-landed private homes in the Core Central Region (CCR) saw the biggest jump of 5.0 percent, following a 1.4 percent hike seen during the previous quarter.
Song noted that this was supported by new launches in 2017 that recorded higher prices.
For instance, transacted median prices at Gramercy Park climbed 9.5 percent from $2,902 psf in Q4 2017 to $3,177 psf in Q1 2018, while that in Martin Modern increased 14.8 percent from $2,354 psf to $2,703 psf.
JLL’s national director for research & consultancy Ong Teck Hui added that prices at Reflections at Keppel Bay and The Interlace rose by 5.7 percent and 11.8 percent respectively in the first quarter.
Another factor that has driven the uptrend in prices is the high land rates from recent collective sales like River Valley, Bukit Timah and Holland Road, said Song.
In the Outside Central Region (OCR), URA’s flash estimate shows that prices rose by 3.8 percent after increasing by 0.8 percent previously. Sales in this area accounted for about 50 percent of total transactions in the quarter under review, noted Ong, while the CCR and RCR made up 18 percent and 31 percent respectively.
Projects in the OCR that saw higher prices include Symphony Suites, where average prices rose 3.9 percent from $1,046 psf to $1,087 psf on a quarterly basis, while that in Grandeur Park Residences increased 7.8 percent from $1,416 psf to $1,526 psf.
Other developments that saw price gains included Kingsford Waterbay in Upper Serangoon, The Clement Canopy in Clementi and Parc Botannia.
Over in the Rest of Central Region (RCR), prices only edged up by 1.1 percent versus the 0.4 percent gain before. Song thinks the slower price growth could be due to the lack of unsold inventory there.
Nevertheless, she is anticipating more launches in the area from April onwards such as Amber 45, The Verandah Residences and phase two of Park Place Residences, which could support price growth in the second quarter.
With the strong Q1 price growth, Ong believes that the private residential property index could increase by 10 percent for the whole of 2018 if the current trend continues.
Colliers International expects average private home prices to rise by eight percent this year, up from their previous forecast of five percent.
“We think the rise is front-loaded due to the pent-up demand and buyers’ fear of missing out on good value buys as prices trend up,” said Song, adding that CCR prices could increase by 10 percent this year.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
