According to the newest public housing figures, the prices of the Housing Board resale flat increased as more units were sold in the fourth quarter of last year.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Thursday (23 Jan) reported that the resale transactions in the third quarter were 6,264 cases, followed by the 6,339 resale transactions in the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter of 2019 saw 12.5 per cent higher resale transactions than the fourth quarter of 2018.
In addition, resale transactions rose by 2.7 per cent to 23,714 cases from 23,099 cases for the entirety of 2019.
From the previous quarter, the resale flat prices increased by 0.5 per cent, which puts resale prices in 2019 at 0.1 per cent higher than the previous year.
The head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie, Christine Sun remarked that the HDB resale market displayed a “surprising turnaround” in the third quarter of last year, following a continuous price decline for 11 consecutive quarters since the fourth quarter of 2016.
This change could be the result of the cumulative benefits of government policies, she added: “A number of important changes were made last year such as allowing buyers greater flexibility in using CPF to buy older flats and enhancing the CPF Housing Grant to increase housing affordability for more Singaporeans.”
With regards to the median resale price between October and December last year, the highest price was the five-room flats in Bukit Merah at S$783,500, followed by the four-room flats in Queenstown at S$750,000 and the five-room units in Toa Payoh at S$738,000.
HDB approved 0.6 per cent more applications to rent out flats in the final quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of the same year, HDB figures showed. Approved applicants increased from 12,006 applicants to 12,079 applicants in the third quarter of 2019.
The 56,474 rented HDB flats at the end of September increased by 1.3 per cent to 57,224 units at the end of December.
In 2020, around 16,000 to 17,000 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats are scheduled to be up for sale.
In Toa Payoh and Sembawang, around 3,000 HDB flats will be offered for sale in February this year.
Prospective buyers will be able to purchase BTO flats in May later this year as the 3,700 units in Tengah, Choa Chu Kang, Tampines and Pasir Ris will be opened for sales.
