This is the highest decline seen for resale flat prices in over two years.
Prices for HDB resale flats fell by 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2018 – its highest decline for the last nine quarters since Q1 2016, according to more complete data released by the Housing Board on Friday (27 Apr).
The number of resale transactions also fell to 4,458 units from 5,738 in the fourth quarter of 2017. On a yearly basis, the number of resale transactions fell by 1.6 percent.
More: HDB Resale Prices Continue To Fall In Q1
PropNex Realty CEO Ismail Gafoor attributed the continuous price decline to a few groups of sellers who are in urgent need to sell their properties, second-timers who received their new keys with the completion of their Build-To-Order (BTO) flats, new executive condominium upgraders who received the keys to their new homes, and those who are upgrading to private properties this year.
“This has inadvertently created an on stream of supply of resale flats and also kept the prices muted for the past few quarters,” he said.
Nonetheless, Ismail expects demand for HDB resale flats to improve.
“With the positive sentiment in residential market as well as huge number of en bloc sales in 2017 and 2018, we predict a greater demand for HDB resale properties with some en bloc owners considering bigger sized resale flats in the second half of the year,” he noted.
“There is a likelihood that HDB prices may well experience a muted growth of up to 1.0 percent in 2018.”
Meanwhile, the number of approved applications to rent out HDB flats rose 3.9 percent to 11,721 cases in Q1 this year from 11,279 in Q4 2017. On an annual basis, the number of approved applications to rent out HDB flats jumped 17.4 percent.
As of 31 March, a total of 54,329 HDB flats were rented out, up 1.1 percent from the previous quarter.
HDB also revealed that it will offer “about 3,900 new flats in Sengkang, Tampines, Toa Payoh and Yishun in the May 2018 BTO exercise”, in which a concurrent sale of balance flats exercise will also be held.
It added that around 17,000 new flats will be launched for sale this year.
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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
