Home Prices Stay Flat in August 2010
Source: The Business Times
Published September 29, 2010
Non-landed private home prices stay flattish in August
NUS flash estimate offers a snapshot before government's cooling measures
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
(SINGAPORE) The latest flash estimates from National University of Singapore (NUS) show that prices of non-landed private homes remained flattish in August compared with July. This period would not have shown up the impact of the government cooling measures, which were announced on Aug 30.
The Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI), compiled by the NUS Institute of Real Estate Studies, covers only completed properties.
NUS's overall price index for non-landed homes for August rose 0.8 per cent month on month, compared with a month-on-month drop of 0.1 per cent for July. The June index was up 0.6 per cent over May. In May, the index appreciated 2.4 per cent.
Knight Frank chairman Tan Tiong Cheng said the numbers show that the market for resale apartments/condos had stabilised since June, even before the Government announced its latest set of cooling measures.
'Much of the sales in the primary market (developer sales) in the past few months have been driven by shoebox units. So the volume of developer sales was pretty strong in July and August but if you look at the absolute dollar quantum of units sold, it's not increasing,' he explained.
NUS' sub-index for Central region, which covers a basket of properties in districts 1-4 and 9-11, was unchanged in August, following a 0.8 per cent month-on-month drop in July. The sub-index for Non-Central region rose 1.5 per cent in August from the preceding month, after a 0.5 per cent increase in July.
Since the end of last year, all three indices have appreciated, to the tune of 10 per cent for the overall index, 7.6 per cent for the Central region and 11.8 per cent for the Non-Central region.
The August flash estimate for Central region is still 4 per cent below the pre-crisis high in November 2007. However, for the Non-Central region, the latest index has surpassed its respective pre-crisis peak in January 2008 by 13.9 per cent. As a result, the overall SRPI flash estimate for August is 6.9 per cent above its Nov 2007 high.
The SPRI is compiled based on a basket of properties for the base period Dec 2009 comprising 74,359 units in 364 projects within the 26 postal districts completed between Oct 1998 and Sept 2009. The basket is to be reviewed every two years.
Market watchers are awaiting the government's release of flash estimates for the Q3 2010 prices indices for private homes and HDB resale flats on Friday for an idea of the impact of the recent cooling measures.
