Private home prices grew by just 1.4% in the first quarter; rents fell another 1.9%
Landed property prices led the home price increase in the first half of 2024. Prices rose 2,6%, up from 4,6% the quarter before.
The Q1 increase in prices for non-landed properties was only 1%, compared with a 2.3 percent rise the previous quarter.
Prime Core Central Regions (CCRs) were responsible for price increases of 3.4% in Q1. Rest of Central Region & Outside Central Region both saw subdued increases of 0.3 % and 0.2 %, respectively.
The public release of Watten House within the CCR segment appeared to be a boost for sentiment. Projects like Perfect Ten and Leedon Green have seen transactions with higher median prices.
Analysts claim that this trend may continue to grow as the housing market increases and demand is moderated
Singapore’s house prices rose at a slower pace than they had in almost three previous quarters, due to a slowdown in home sales, an increase in supply, and lowered rents in the early part of 2024.
Analysts have said that the pressure on private residential markets is likely continue in coming months due to the slowdown of both rental and home-buying demand amid economic uncertainty.
Urban Redevelopment Authority statistics released Friday (26 April) revealed that prices for private residential properties increased by 1.4% in first quarter of 2024. The agency had estimated a 1.5 percent increase earlier this month. However, the price of private residential properties rose by 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
The 1.4 percent increase is the smallest quarterly gain since the Q3 of 2021, when there was an increase of just 1.1 percent.
Rents fell by 1.9 percentage points in Q1, following a decline of 2.1% in the quarter before
The slower price increase reflects the cautious approach of homebuyers in relation to “higher price levels amid a slower wage rise and softer economic conditions”.
Private home prices rose by 34.4% following the Covid pandemic.
There are signs of increased resistance to high-priced homes, despite higher interest rate and the punishing ABSD (additional purchasers’ stamp duty), which is effective in April 2023. As a result, 2023 developer sales were at a 15 year low of 6,421 housing units.
The unsold inventory of uncompleted unit (excluding ECs), jumped from 16,929 to 19,936 during Q1 2023. In Q1, unsold inventory grew 17 per cent, from 16,929 units to 19,936 units.
CCR buying could bring prices in line with other areas. CCR prices rose by only about 11 percent between the years 2021-2023. That is far behind other areas where prices grew over 30 percent.
Overall, sales volumes were down 2.4% to 4,230 in Q1 for the third straight time. In Q1, resale sales fell by 5.0% to 2,689 units, while sub-sales decreased by 8.3% to just 377 units.
The volume of new sales increased 6.6% in Q1 to 1,164 homes. It was because developers began to offer more private homes in the market, 1,304, but excluding executive condominiums.
In Q1, however, new launches saw a slower take up. A new launch with more than one hundred units saw a take-up percentage of about 39 per cent compared to 54 per cent a year before.
This is also the lowest first-quarter sales since Q1 of 2008, when 762 vehicles were sold
Developers also have become more conservative about bidding on land. They may price new units lower to appeal more to local buyers. In Q1, he stated, the median transacted prices of new non landed residential homes (excluding ECs), were S$1,96million, down from S$2,15million in the preceding quarter.
Easing rents
Rents meanwhile fell by 1.9% in Q1, adding to the 2.1% drop in the quarter before.
Analysts predicted a “bundant number of completions” by 2023. Excluding ECs last year’s completions were 19,968 privately owned homes. This was the highest total since 2016 with 20,803 private homes.
In the first half of this year only 241 apartments were completed. This was mainly due to the freehold Meyer Mansion with 200 units located in District 15 The total number of completed units has decreased by 188 due to the demolitions and redevelopments of previously sold projects.
The vacancy ratio fell to 6.8 % at the end Q1, down from 8.1 % in Q4.
10561 private homes – including ECs – are due to be completed by the end of 2024. Sixty-three units are expected to be finished by 2025.
Analysts predict further rent reductions in the coming months
Rents could drop by up to five percent this year because of the housing shortage, lower numbers of incoming expats, and possible budget restrictions for existing tenants.
Rents may stabilize by next summer, since the new construction in 2025 and 2020 will be about 6,691 apartments per year on average. This is much lower than average for the last decade which was 13,275 apartments.
Yet, a healthy portfolio of new project launches can stimulate market activity as well as homebuyer demand.
