According to the flash data from real estate portal SRX Property on Tuesday (14 Jan), the resale market for non-landed private homes showed traces of the cooling property measures implemented in 2018.
The flash data shows the mild increase in prices by 1.7 per cent in 2019 as well as the declining transactions by more than a quarter over 2018.
After prices dropped 0.2 per cent in November last year, this was followed by the private resale prices finishing flat in December.
In 2019, all regions in the country saw a small rise in prices. The outside of central region (OCR) rose by 2.3 per cent and the core central region (CCR) by 1.5 per cent.
According to 2019 SRX figures, a sum of 9,017 resale non-landed private homes were sold, which was 27.4 per cent lower than in 2018.
The head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee and Tie, Christine Sun opined that the higher number of sold homes in the first half of 2018 before the dampening measures were introduced in July, was the main reason behind the stronger sales volume in 2018. In the second half of 2018, demand for resale homes remained weak. Ms Sun reasoned that weaker market sentiment and strong competition from numerous project launches led to 2019’s weak demand.
Despite this, however, year-on-year sales volume increased from August to December last year, which hints at the slow recovery of the resale market.
The SRX flash data showed that in December, 650 units were estimated to have been resold, which is 15.4 per cent less than the 768 units sold in November. But December’s 650’s units were still 15.3 per cent higher than the five-year average volume of December and 21.5 per cent higher based on year-on-year comparison.
Ms Sun remarked “Although buying sentiment may continue to recover, competition for buyers will remain stiff given the pipeline of new supply that will be entering the market.” She expects demand for resale homes to continue trending between 8,000 and 9,000 with a mild 1-3 per cent resale price increase in 2020.
Based on the SRX figures, an apartment at Four Seasons Park in Cuscaden was transacted at the highest price in December for S$17.9 million. In the OCR, Bayshore Park in the East Coast recorded the highest transaction price at S$3.2 million whereas in the RCR, a unit at Reflections at Keppel Bay was sold at the highest price of S$7.2 million.
A SRX indicator, the TOX figure, shows if a property price is undervalued or overvalued by using SRX’s computer-generated market value. A negative TOX value suggests that a purchaser is underpaying whereas a positive TOX value suggests overpaying. If the TOX value is zero, then price is equal to the estimated market value.
December’s TOX value remained negative at S$2000. The lowest median TOX value was recorded at the district 17’s Changi Airport/Changi Village with value negative U$54,000 and district 23’s Farrer Park/Serangoon Road at negative S$30,500.
As for the highest median TOX value, district’s 9 Orchard and River Valley areas recorded the value positive S$30,000 while district 8’s Farrer Park and Serangoon Road recorded the value positive S$28,000.
