Luxury home prices in Singapore post sharpest fall among world's leading cities

PRICES of luxury homes in Singapore plunged 10 per cent, the steepest fall compared to 32 other leading cities in the world over the past one year, according to a recent report by Knight Frank Asia Pacific.

Singapore is one of seven cities which saw prices of high-end residential properties fall over a 12-month period up to September 2014, based on Knight Frank's Prime Global Cities Index report which was released on Thursday.

Apart from Hong Kong, which saw prices slip by 1.1 per cent, the others were European cities Paris, Zurich, Moscow, Geneva, St Petersburg, all of which saw prices fall to a lesser extent than Singapore.

"The muted sentiment in Singapore's luxury residential market remains inherent, with falling transaction volumes and buyers are anticipating further price adjustments," said Alice Tan, Knight Frank Singapore's director and research head.

"Some owners are lowering their asking prices in light of market weakness, while majority of owners are holding out given the exclusivity of their property assets and their confidence in Singapore's long-term prospects," she added.

The report, which tracks the movement in luxury residential prices across 33 cities, discovered that prime residential prices rose by 4 per cent over a 12-month period, down from 6.6 per cent notched up a year earlier.

Over this year's third quarter, the index rose merely 0.2 per cent - its weakest performance in two years. The report attributed the marginal increase partly to the fact that the third quarter, for much of the world, is dominated by the summer holiday season which often sees slower sales activity reducing the pressure on prices.

Tokyo recorded the strongest quarterly growth while Jakarta saw the strongest annual rise in luxury prices. Luxury homes in North American cities increased by 10.5 per cent on average in annual terms, European cities by comparison averaged a one per cent rise.