Resale transactions for non-landed private residential units fell by 7.5 per cent month-on-month in May, and prices dipped slightly to mark a 17-month low since December 2012, according to Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX).
In its flash report for May released on Monday (June 9), SRX said an estimated 421 transactions were registered, down from the 455 transactions in April. This represented a 42.6 per cent drop from the 734 units resold in the same month last year, it added.
Commenting on this, real estate agency ERA said: “Buyers may have diverted their attention to hot new projects that were launched by developers at attractive prices, for example Commonwealth Towers, as well as projects relaunched by developers at lower revised prices such as Sky Habitat.”
Overall resale prices dipped slightly by 0.3 per cent, with the city area leading the drop with 2.9 per cent and the suburbs seeing a 0.3 per cent dip. The city fringes climbed by 0.6 per cent though, the report stated.
The majority, or 16 of 25 districts, experienced negative Transaction Over X-value in May, led by District 9 (Orchard, Cairnhill, River Valley) and 14 (Geylang, Eunos), SRX said.
Bucking the trend, units in the Bukit Timah, Holland Road and Tanglin district (District 10) posted the highest positive Transaction Over X-value among districts with more than 10 transactions with S$80,000. This was followed by those in Upper Bukit Timah and Ulu Pandan (District 21) with S$29,000, it noted.
“Resale prices have continued to fall with sellers becoming more realistic about reduced demand. The private resale market remains gloomy and prices may continue to moderate to the loan curbs like the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR),” ERA said.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 9 Jun 2014