HDB resale prices up 0.8% in March from February but down 1.9% y-o-y: SRX

RESALE prices of Housing Board flats rose 0.8 per cent in March from February, the month of Chinese New Year, but dropped by 1.9 per cent from a year ago, according to flash data from real estate portal SRX Property on Thursday.

For the first quarter of 2018, resale prices are down by 0.6 per cent from the previous three months.

Prices have also declined by 12.8 per cent since their peak in April 2013.

On a month-on-month basis, March resale prices of four-room flats, five-room flats, and executive flats were up by 1.4 per cent, 0.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, while the price of three-room flats decreased by 0.4 per cent.

In mature estates, prices increased by 1.4 per cent, while in non-mature estates, this went up 0.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, there was a 58.5 per cent increase in resale flats sold last month - from February's 1,195 units to 1,894 units.

The volume of resale flats, however, dipped by a marginal 0.8 per cent year-on-year, compared to 1,910 units resold in March 2017.

In March, the overall median Transaction Over X-Value (TOX) was negative S$2,000, down from positive S$1,000 in the previous month.

TOX measures whether buyers are overpaying or underpaying compared with SRX Property's computer-generated market value.

Flats in Bedok look to be in demand, with the highest median TOX of S$7,500 in March, followed by units in Geylang at S$3,000.

In contrast, Queenstown posted the most negative median TOX of S$16,000, followed by Jurong East at S$10,000.

THE STRAITS TIMES