Resale prices of non-landed private homes in August rose 0.4 per cent month-on-month, according to flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) on Monday (Sep 8).
Still, when compared with August 2013, resale prices of non-landed private homes have dropped 5 per cent. Compared with the recent peak in January 2014, prices have declined 5.3 per cent, SRX said.
Resale prices of private homes in the Core Central Region rose the most last month, rising 4.8 per cent compared with July. In the Rest of Central Region, prices were up 1.5 per cent. In comparison, resale prices in Outside of Central Region fell 1.1 per cent.
Resale volume remained flat, with 418 non-landed private homes resold in August, similar to the 417 transacted units in July.
Real estate agency OrangeTee expects resale volume to pick up next year as owners do not need to pay the Sellers’ Stamp Duty (SSD) if they bought their property in 2011 – the SSD is imposed on property sold within four years of buying it. However, OrangeTee added that heavy discounts are unlikely.
Mr Steven Tan, Managing Director of OrangeTee, said: “Most of the owners have no urgency to sell at a much lower price because the overall economic outlook is still positive and many owners now have strong holding powers.”
The overall median Transaction Over X-value (TOX), which measures whether people are overpaying or underpaying the SRX Property X-Value estimated market value, remained at negative S$10,000 last month, up from negative S$20,000 in July.
For districts with more than 10 resale transactions, districts 15 (Katong, Joo Chiat, Amber Road), 23 (Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang) and 16 (Bedok, Upper East Coast) posted the lowest median TOX at -S$40,000, -S$38,000, -S$30,000, respectively.
Conversely, district 11 (Watten Estate, Novena, Thomson) had the highest median TOX of S$50,000, followed by district 18 (Tampines, Pasir Ris) and district 25 (Kranji, Woodgrove) with S$16,000 and S$9,000, respectively.
RENTAL VOLUME UP, PRICES DOWN
As for rental transactions, the number of non-landed private homes rented out last month was 3,539 – a 3.6 per cent increase from July. Year-on-year, rental volume improved by 25 per cent from the 2,831 contracts signed in August 2013, according to SRX.
However, rental prices continued their fall, slipping 0.6 per cent from the previous month – the seventh consecutive month of decline.
The decline was greatest in the Core Central Region at 2 per cent, while prices in the Outside Central Region fell 1.1 per cent. Prices in the Rest of Central Region, however, rose marginally by 0.4 per cent.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 8 Sep 2014