Singapore home prices break from two quarters of decline

Property curbs had taken a toll on the private residential property market toward the end of 2018

Private home prices in Singapore were up 1.3 percent in the three months to the second quarter of 2019, according to flash estimates by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

URA’s private residential property index hit 150.5 points in Q2 2019, up from 148.6 points in the first quarter. It marks a new peak for the index since Q1 2014.

The increase comes on the heels of two consecutive quarterly declines attendant on the issuance of cooling measures in 2018. The first quarter registered a drop of 0.7 percent for private home prices, following a drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

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In the second quarter of 2019, non-landed private home prices registered increases in the Core Central Region, where they were up 1.5 percent, Rest of Central Region (up 3 percent), and Outside Central Region (up 0.5 percent). For perspective, prices had been down 3 percent, 0.7 percent, and 0.2 percent in those regions, respectively, in the first quarter.

Landed homes, on the other hand, saw their prices rise 0.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with a 1.1 percent rise in Q1 2019.

The URA sourced flash estimates from transaction prices as reflected on stamp duty payments as well as data from developer sales until June.