Private-home price decline in Q2 moderates to 0.4%: URA

THE pace of decline in prices of private homes has eased in the second quarter, where the fall was a smaller 0.4 per cent compared to the 0.7 per cent a quarter ago.

While prices of landed properties slipped further by 1.5 per cent following a 1.1 per cent decline in the preceding quarter, prices of non-landed properties fell by a smaller 0.1 per cent in the second quarter compared to the 0.6 per cent drop in the previous quarter.

The latest quarterly statistics on the real estate market were released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday morning.

The moderating price decline in private non-landed homes came on the back of a quarter-on-quarter rise in property prices in the prime and city-fringe areas.

Non-landed home prices in the Core Central Region rose 0.3 per cent, after increasing 0.3 per cent in the preceding quarter. Prices in the Rest of Central Region rose by 0.2 per cent after remaining unchanged in the first quarter. Prices of non-landed properties in the Outside Central Region remain on a slide, but fell a smaller 0.5 per cent quarter on quarter, compared to the 1.3 per cent decline in the first quarter.

Developers launched a total of 2,371 uncompleted private residential units, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), during the second quarter, compared to the 953 units in the first quarter. They also sold more private homes - 2,256 private residential units (excluding ECs), up from 1,419 units sold in the first quarter.

As at the end of the second quarter, there were 47,250 uncompleted private homes (excluding ECs) in the pipeline, compared to the 53,512 units in the previous quarter. This number of units in the pipeline goes up to 58,804 units if the 11,554 EC units in the pipeline are included.

Of the EC units in the pipeline, 5,471 units remained unsold. In total, 26,960 units (including ECs) remained unsold.

Based on the expected completion dates reported by developers, 11,775 units (including ECs) will be completed in the second half this year. Another 17,461 units (including ECs) will be completed next year. In comparison, 22,267 units (including ECs) were completed in 2015.