Flash estimates of the fourth quarter Resale Price Index – the first estimates based on a new method of calculation – showed a 1.4 per cent decline in the prices of Housing and Development Board flats over the previous quarter, the HDB announced on Friday (Jan 2).
The newly-adopted Stratified Hedonic Regression method “will control for variations in flat attributes of the resale flats transacted, thus better reflecting price changes over time”, the HDB said. “This allows the index to continue serving its purpose of providing timely and reliable information on resale market movements.”
Previous quarterly percentage changes remain unchanged under the new methodology, although the previous RPI from the start of 1990 to the third quarter of 2014 have been rescaled to the new base period of 2014.
The full-quarter RPI – which provides an indication of general resale flat price trends – will be released on Jan 23, HDB said.
In the same press release, the housing agency said it plans to launch 16,900 new flats over four Build-to-Order exercises in 2015, including flats in news areas such as Bidadari and Punggol Northshore. The first BTO exercise will be held in February, where about 3,940 new flats in Bukit Batok, Geylang and Hougang will be offered, it added.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 2 Jan 2015