Resale flat prices have continued to fall from a peak in 2013.
UPDATED: Resale HDB flat prices dipped by 0.8 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2018, according to flash estimates released by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Monday (2 Apr).
This is the biggest decline for the past nine quarters since Q1 2016. In addition, resale flat prices have continued to fall from a peak in 2013.
More: HDB resale prices could bottom out in 2018
Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Realty, said the current situation is not worrying.
“The government has introduced several new measures designed to make HDB resale flats more attractive in the past year, and now that prices are dipping, more buyers would be willing to consider resale flats,” he said.
Lim noted that buyers can now receive up to $120,000 in housing grants, while the new HDB resale portal has cut the transaction processing time by half.
He expects resale flat prices to remain flat in 2018. “Any price increase or decrease is likely to be very moderate and would not exceed 1.5 percent for the full year.”
HDB also announced that it will offer around 3,900 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats in Yishun, Tampines, Sengkang and Toa Payoh in its upcoming May BTO exercise. At the same time, there will be a concurrent sale of balance flats exercise.
In a December 2017 blog post, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said that HDB will maintain a steady supply of about 17,000 new flats in 2018.
This includes the launch of about 1,000 flats in Sembawang, Sengkang and Yishun in the second half of the year.
“These flats will have shorter waiting times of about 2.5 years, instead of the typical 3-4 years for most other BTO projects,” Wong said.
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Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
