Private residential property index fell 0.6 point in 4th quarter of 2016

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has released the flash estimate of the price index for private residential property for 4th Quarter 2016 today, saying that the private residential property index fell 0.6 point from 137.9 points in 3rd Quarter 2016 to 137.3 points in 4th Quarter 2016.
This represents a decline of 0.4%, compared with the 1.5% decline in the previous quarter.
COMPARISON OF PROPERTY PRICE INDEX FOR 3rd Quarter 2016 AND 4th Quarter 2016

Private Residential Property Price Index (1Q09=100)

It stated that for the whole of 2016, prices have fallen by 3.0%, compared with the 3.7% decline in 2015.
URA also said that prices of non-landed private residential properties remained unchanged in Core Central Region (CCR), compared to the 1.9% decline in the previous quarter. Prices in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) declined by 2.0%, after registering a decrease of 1.0% in the previous quarter. Prices in Outside Central Region (OCR) declined by 0.3%, after registering a 1.0% decline in the previous quarter.
Property Price Index of Non-Landed Private Residential Property (1Q09=100)

It stated that for the whole of 2016, prices in CCR, RCR and OCR have fallen by declined by 1.3%, 2.8% and 3.1% respectively.
Prices of landed properties increased by 0.9% in 4th Quarter 2016, compared to the 2.7% decline in the previous quarter. For the whole of 2016, prices of landed properties fell by 4.4%.
URA noted that the flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in contracts submitted for stamp duty payment, and data on units sold by developers (both licensed and de-licensed) up till mid-Dec 16.
It said that the statistics will be updated when URA releases the full real estate statistics for 4th Quarter 2016 on Thursday (26 January). Past data have shown that the difference between the quarterly price changes indicated by the flash estimate and the actual price changes could be significant when the change is small. The public is advised to interpret the flash estimates with caution.