HDB resale flats volume down 3% in December

Singapore

FEWER Housing Development Board (HDB) resale flats were sold last month than in November. The number fell 3 per cent, even as their prices dipped by 0.3 per cent in the same period.

In all, 1,858 HDB resale flats changed hands in December, real estate portal SRX Property said on Thursday. Compared to a year ago, resale volume last month was up 29.6 per cent.

A total of 22,477 HDB resale transactions were made in 2019, 3.4 per cent higher than in 2018.

Four-room flats made up 41.3 per cent of the resale units sold last month, followed by three-room flats at 25.8 per cent and five-room flats at 23.3 per cent; executive condominium flats made up 7.7 per cent. The rest sold were two-room flats.

Although resale flat prices fell by 0.3 per cent in December from November's figures, they were still 0.4 per cent higher than a year ago.

Compared to the peak in April 2013, prices were 14 per cent lower.

Prices in non-mature estates fell 1.6 per cent year on year, while those in mature estates fell by 1.4 per cent.

The most expensive resale flat last month was a four-room flat at The Pinnacle@Duxton, which was sold for S$1.06 million. A five-room premium unit in Punggol was sold at S$871,000, the most costly flat sold in a non-mature estate.

SRX forecasts that in the next three months, 4,785 flats will be put on the resale market as they approach their five-year minimum occupation period.

Its calculations show that resale flat buyers in December paid S$1,000 more than what it estimates to be the market value for flats. It was a S$2,000 increase from November.

SRX data showed that the overall median transaction over X-value (TOX) was positive S$1,000 last month.

TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying (positive value) or underpaying (negative value) for a property based on SRX's computer-generated market value. The data only includes districts with more than 10 resale transactions.

HDB executive condominium flats recorded a positive median TOX value of S$15,000 last month while both three-room and four-room flats recorded positive median TOX values of S$,1000 over the same period. Five-room flats recorded a negative median TOX value of S$2,000.

Flats in Serangoon recorded the highest median TOX at S$40,000, while those in Bishan recorded the lowest median TOX, at negative S$6,000.

The dip in the number of resale flats sold in December compared with November could be seasonal.

Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee, said: "Housing activities typically slow down in December since most potential buyers are still on holiday and many sellers prefer to hold back their listings to the start of the following year."

She said she expected sentiment to improve, with a higher flat sales volume this year.

Recent positive policy changes such as the introduction of the new Enhanced Central Provident Fund (CPF) Housing Grant last September and increased flexibility in the use of CPF funds to buy older flats may help to spur demand. THE STRAITS TIMES