RESALE prices grew at a slower pace in the third quarter of 2023, with 10 Housing and Development Board (HDB) towns witnessing a decline in average resale prices, said OrangeTee & Tie on Thursday (Oct 12).

Overall, HDB resale prices rose 1.2 per cent in Q3, lower than the 1.5 per cent growth in Q2 and 2022’s average quarterly growth of 2.5 per cent. The Q3 data was based on flash estimates released by HDB in October. 

Christine Sun, OrangeTee & Tie’s senior vice-president of research and analytics, noted that year to date, prices rose by 3.8 per cent in the first nine months of the year, less than the increase seen over the first three quarters of 2022 at 8 per cent, and 9.1 per cent in 2021.

“HDB resale prices grew at a slower pace last quarter as some price resistance set in amid inflationary concerns,” said Sun. She added that homebuyers’ affordability has been hit by the longer-than-expected interest rates hikes. 

OrangeTee said that there was a dip in quarter-on-quarter price change in 10 out of the 26 HDB towns, compared with six towns in Q2 2023. 

The biggest decline was in Geylang, registering a 3.6 per cent fall in Q3 compared with a quarter earlier. This was followed by flats within the Central Area with a 3.4 per cent drop, and Bukit Batok town recording a 2 per cent decline in prices.

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The quarter’s price growth was driven largely by four-room flats, where the average price jumped 1.8 per cent from S$579,740 in Q2 to S$589,992 in Q3.

In Q3, prices of executive flats increased 1.2 per cent from S$827,549 to S$837,138, while prices of two-room flats rose 1 per cent from S$321,255 to S$324,315.

The flash estimates also showed that total resale volume rose 2.9 per cent to 6,592 units in Q3, from 6,409 units in the previous quarter. Year to date, total resale volume hit 7,298 units, a 9.7 per cent decline from the same quarter last year. 

Demand for resale flats for Q3 was due to “more grants given to first-timers purchasing HDB resale flats, and a delay in August’s Build-To-Order sales launch”, said Sun.

By flat type, demand for four-room flats fell, with total resale transactions dropping to 43.8 per cent in Q3. This was down from 45.7 per cent in Q2. The proportion of sales for five-room flats also decreased, from 23.4 per cent to 22.9 per cent over the same period.

More purchasers had opted to buy executive flats, with resale transactions in Q3 for this segment rising to 5.9 per cent from 5.5 per cent in Q2. Buyers were also in favour of smaller units, with sales volume for two-room units climbing from 2.3 per cent to 2.8 per cent, and that for three-room units rising from 23.1 per cent to 24.6 per cent.

OrangeTee said 128 resale flats were sold for at least a million dollars in the third quarter, higher than the 111 units in the same quarter in 2022. With 336 million-dollar deals in the year to date, Sun expects the number this year to exceed the previous year’s high of 369 units.

With 10 units being transacted for at least S$900,000 so far in Sengkang, Sun predicts that this new estate may be the next town to see a flat crossing the million-dollar mark. She added that only four towns have yet to see a million-dollar transaction.      

The property consultancy estimates the total resale volume to be between 26,000 and 27,000 units this year, with resale prices rising at a slower pace of 4 per cent to 5.5 per cent.