HDB resale flat prices down 6% for the year

Singapore

THERE is no sign of a bottoming out of HDB resale prices even as the latest flash estimates from the Housing & Development Board (HDB) showed prices falling by 6 per cent for the whole of last year.

The estimated 1.4 per cent quarterly drop in the fourth quarter - though milder than the 1.7 per cent fall in the third quarter - marked a sixth straight quarter of decline in the HDB Resale Price Index (RPI) to a level last seen in 2011.

The index's full-year drop of 6 per cent is also the steepest decline since 2001, with last year marking a turn in Singapore's housing market engineered by the government's cooling measures.

While the extent of price falls came largely within market's expectations, this shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market is not over yet, property consultants say, reiterating what Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said in his blog this week. This is notwithstanding the fact that the HDB is scaling down its build-to-order (BTO) p…