A late-year surge holds private home prices up - will it last?

The numbers are in, and show that a late-year spurt pulled private home prices up by 2.7 per cent for the fourth quarter after three quarters of slow to no price gains. The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s flash data indicates that private residential prices rose 6.7 per cent in 2023, slower than the 8.7 per cent increase in 2022. Prices are still up 32 per cent since bottoming in Q1 2020.  

Sales at two new launches in particular pushed prices upwards in a low-volume quarter. CapitaLand’s J’Den project and UOL and SingLand’s Watten House both came to market at benchmark prices. Prices also rose among landed properties in Q4, reversing their decline in the previous quarter.

The combined impact of several rounds of cooling measures, continued signalling of higher supply to come, and macroeconomic comedowns have no doubt chilled the climate. During the year, home prices fell in some sectors. But players point to pockets of sturdy demand (“resilient” was perhaps the term most-used last year) and see prices holding.