The resale prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats continued their downward spiral in September, slipping 0.5 per cent from August – the eighth consecutive month that prices have declined, the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) said on Thursday (Aug 7).
Prices for three- and four-room flats declined by 0.2 per cent, while prices for five-room flats fell 1.6 per cent. In comparison, executive flat prices increased marginally by 0.1 per cent.
On a year-on-year basis, HDB resale prices dropped 7.5 per cent from September 2013. According to the SRX HDB Price Index, prices have declined 8.9 per cent since the peak in April 2013, and are currently at a 20-month low since January 2012.
A total of 1,469 HDB resale flats were sold last month, a 10.7 per cent increase from 1,327 transacted units in August. Compared with a year ago, resale volume was up 19.9 per cent, SRX said.
RENTAL VOLUME DOWN, PRICES DOWN
An estimated 1,483 HDB flats were rented in September, down 6.7 per cent from the 1,590 units rented in the previous month and 0.7 per cent lower than a year ago.
According to the SRX HDB Price Index for Rentals, rental prices fell slightly by 0.3 per cent compared with August and were 2.5 per cent lower than a year ago. Three-room, five-room and executive flats posted declines of 0.5 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively, while four-room flats saw a marginal increase in rental prices of 0.1 per cent.
TOX REMAINS NEGATIVE
Overall median Transaction Over X-Value (TOX), which measures whether people are overpaying or underpaying the SRX estimated market value, remained negative last month at -S$2,000 – up from -S$3,000 in August.
For HDB towns with more than 10 resale transactions in September, only Bukit Panjang and Toa Payoh reported positive median TOX of S$5,500 and S$2,500, respectively.
Among HDB towns with more than 10 transactions, the lowest median TOX were in Sengkang, Choa Chu Kang, Kallang/Whampoa, and Woodlands, at -S$10,500, -S$9,000, -S$5,000, and -S$5,000, respectively.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 9 Oct 2014