Bargain hunters watch for further slide in prices

Singapore

ALEX Zou joined about 100 Singaporeans who packed shoulder-to-shoulder into an auction at the Amara Hotel on a Friday afternoon looking for a cheap home to buy.

The bargain hunters who stuffed themselves into the 50-seat conference room are another sign of the decline of Singapore's housing market.

After five years of price gains, values are falling and defaults are rising following government measures to curb lending and a decline in the number of foreign buyers. Banks auctioned 118 repossessed homes last year, about 10 times the number in 2013, said Mok Sze Sze, head of Singapore auctions at broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

As the auctioneer at the hotel bellowed apartment prices and scanned the room for bidders, Mr Zou held back in anticipation of better deals later this year. "I have been coming to these auctions hoping to find a …