Prices Of Singapore Private Homes, resale flats drop again in Q3

SINGAPORE - The flash estimate of the 3rd quarter 2014 Resale Price Index (RPI) for public housing is 192.5, falling 1.6 per cent over the previous quarter, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said in a statement released today.

The RPI provides information on the general price movements in the resale public housing market. Transacted prices of individual flats can also be accessed online via HDB's InfoWEB.

HDB added that the RPI for the full quarter and more detailed public housing data for 3rd quarter 2014 will be available on Oct 24.

HDB will also offer around 4,290 BTO flats in Sembawang, Sengkang, Tampines and Yishun in Nov this year. Another 3,000 flats will be offered in a concurrent Sale of Balance Flats exercise.

For more information on the Nov 2014 BTO exercise, visit the HDB InfoWEB at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/.

On the other hand, the flash estimate of the private housing price index fell 1.3 points to 208, resulting in a 0.6 per cent decline over the previous quarter, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said in a statement today. This is the fourth continuous quarter of price decrease.

According to URA, prices of non-landed private residential properties have fallen across all market segments. Prices in the Core Central Region fell 0.9 per cent, prices in Outside Central Region fell 0.2 per cent, and In Rest of Central Region, prices fell 0.1 per cent, as compared to the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, prices of landed properties fell 1.7 per cent, following the 1.7 per cent decline in 2nd Quarter 2014.

URA added that the flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in caveats lodged during the first ten weeks of the quarter, supplemented by survey data on new units sold by developers during that period.

In four weeks' time, URA will release the full real estate statistics for 3rd Quarter 2014, which will include additional data on the caveats lodged and the take-up of new projects.

URA also advises the public to interpret the flash estimates with caution, as past data have shown that the difference between flash estimates of quarterly price changes and actual price changes may be significant when the change is small.