HDB resales rise 33.3% in Q2; prices inch up 0.1%

MORE Housing Board resale flats were sold in the second quarter of this year, with the number of transactions climbing 33.3 per cent as compared to the previous quarter.

Public housing data released by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Friday (July 27) showed that there were 5,941 resale transactions from April to June this year, up from 4,458 in the first three months of the year.

The resale price index also rose slightly by 0.1 per cent to 131.7 in the second quarter.

Resale flats that fetched some of the highest median prices were in the central district, Toa Payoh and Queenstown.

Four-room flats in the central district had a median price of S$870,000. Five-room flats in Toa Payoh saw a median price of S$845,000, while those in Queenstown were at S$838,000.

Three-room flats in Bukit Batok and Jurong West were the cheapest, with median prices of S$264,000 and S$260,000 respectively.

Meanwhile, HDB also noted a 2.6 per cent increase in the number of approved rental applications in the second quarter of this year.

Compared to the second quarter of 2017, this figure had risen by 10 per cent.

There were 12,024 approved applications to rent out HDB flats in the second quarter of this year, up from 11,721 in the previous quarter.

As of June 30, there were 54,896 HDB flats being rented out. This was a 1 per cent increase over the first quarter of the year, when there were 54,329 units rented out.

Flats in Queenstown, Bukit Merah and the central district were among the priciest to rent.

In Queenstown, five-room flats logged a median rent of S$2,800, while similar units in Bukit Merah were at S$2,750.

Four-room flats in the central district also had a median rent of S$2,750.

Queenstown, however, also had flats that were cheapest to rent, with two-room units going for a median rent of S$1,400. This was the same median price seen in three-room flats in Woodlands.

Two-room units in Bukit Merah, and three-rooms flats in Bukit Panjang and Yishun were the next most affordable at S$1,500.

In the first half of the year, HDB offered 11,373 flats for sale, including 7,634 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats.

In August, another 4,300 BTO flats in Punggol and Yishun will be on offer. A re-offer of balance flats exercise will also take place.

The public can visit the HDB InfoWEB for more information on the BTO flats.

THE STRAITS TIMES