NUS price index for private homes up 0.8% in May

NATIONAL University of Singapore's (NUS) price indices for completed non-landed private homes rose month on month in May, after straight declines for several months. Its latest flash estimate shows that the Overall Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) rose 0.8 per cent in May from the revised value for April - after slipping one per cent in April over the previous month.

The increase marked the first gain for the index after nine consecutive months of declines between August 2013 and April this year. May's flash estimate is down 6.3 per cent from the recent peak in July 2013. Year on year, the May index value is down 6 per cent.

Commenting on the month-on-month appreciation based on the May flash estimate, associate professor Lum Sau Kim of the university's Department of Real Estate said the May indices were "perhaps boosted in part by the more active sales in the primary market during May".