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Singapore private home prices eke out surprise 0.3% rise in Q2: URA data
SINGAPORE – Defying Covid-19 circuit breaker measures and a recession, private home prices in Singapore edged up 0.3 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months, according to final data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (July 24).
The 0.3 per cent gain in the second quarter of 2020 bucked the 1.1 per cent drop in the URA’s flash estimate released on July 1.
It comes after private home prices dropped 1 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, their first quarterly decline in a year.
Year on year, prices have risen 1.2 per cent from the second quarter of 2019.
For the second quarter, prices of non-landed properties rose 0.4 per cent from the previous three months, compared with the 1 per cent drop in the previous quarter.
Giving a breakdown by region, the URA said that prices of non-landed properties in the core central region jumped 2.7 per cent in Q2, compared with the 2.2 per cent drop in the previous quarter. Prices of non-landed properties in the city fringe or rest of central region fell 1.7 per cent, compared with the 0.5 per cent fall in the previous quarter.
Prices in the suburbs or outside central region edged up 0.1 per cent, compared with the 0.4 per cent fall in the previous quarter.
The URA also said that prices of landed properties remained unchanged in the second quarter of this year, after dipping 0.9 per cent in the first quarter.
Unlike prices, rents of private residential properties weakened in the second quarter, after edging up in the first three months of the year. Rents fell 1.2 per cent in Q2 2020, compared with a rise of 1.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
Developers launched 1,852 uncompleted private residential units excluding executive condominiums (ECs) for sale in Q2 2020, compared with 2,093 units in the previous quarter.
They sold 1,713 units (excluding ECs) in Q2, 20.3 per cent less than the 2,149 units sold in the previous quarter.
Developers did not launch any EC units for sale in the second quarter, and sold 71 EC units in the quarter. In comparison, they launched 1,044 EC units and sold 590 EC units in the previous quarter.
As at the end of Q2, there was a total supply of 49,090 uncompleted private residential units (excluding ECs) in the pipeline with planning approvals, compared with 48,868 units in the previous quarter.
Of this number, 27,977 units or more than half remained unsold as at the end of Q2, compared with the 29,149 units in the previous quarter.
After adding the supply of 3,613 EC units in the pipeline, there were 52,703 units in the pipeline with planning approvals. Of the EC units in the pipeline, 1,899 remain unsold.
In total, 29,876 units with planning approvals (including ECs) remain unsold, down from 31,099 units in the previous quarter.
Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/singapore-private-home-prices-eke-out-surprise-03-rise-in-q2-ura-data