One year after cooling measures, Singapore home prices are hot again

Dwelling values had made two consecutive quarterly declines

Singapore home prices posted a positive change of 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter of 2019, the Urban Redevelopment Authority announced Friday.

The final figure is higher than the government’s flash estimate of 1.3 percent announced days earlier. It is also the highest quarterly gain for dwelling values in the city-state since the second quarter of 2018.

Property curbs imposed in July 2018 sent almost instant tremors through the market. With the market anticipating headwinds from higher stamp duties on second homes and tightened loan-to-value ratios for housing loans, residential prices dropped for two quarters in a row prior to Q2 2019.

The private home rental index gained 1.3 percent in the three months to 30 June, while the vacancy rate inched up to 6.4 percent from 6.3 percent in the previous quarter.

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There were 2,502 newly launched residential units for sale in the second quarter, down from 2,989 units in Q1 2019.

Apartment sales in Q2 amounted to 2,350 units, up from 1,838 apartments in the preceding quarter.

The supply pipeline for Singapore is still coming in heavy, with government land sales and en-bloc sites due to yield 7,100 units, Bloomberg noted. These are on top of the 35,538 unsold units that had planning approval as of June.

The government has since cut the supply of private homes, excluding executive condominiums, in confirmed sites for its land sales programme, from 1,640 units in the first half of the year to 1,235 units in H2 2019.