Singapore condo resale prices down 0.3% in January: SRX

SINGAPORE'S condo resale market continued to cool for the second straight month in January, with non-landed private residential resale prices down 0.3 per cent in January from the month before, according to monthly figures from real estate portal SRX Property on Tuesday.

This follows December's month-on-month drop of 0.6 per cent, revised from the 0.8 per cent fall earlier estimated by SRX.

Prices were down 1.8 per cent in the core central region and 0.6 per cent in the city fringes, or rest of central region. The suburbs bucked the trend with prices edging up 0.5 per cent. Year on year, however, prices were up in all three regions, with the overall index up 6 per cent.

Overall, resale prices of non-landed private homes were down 1.6 per cent from their peak in July 2018, when property cooling measures were announced.

Resale volumes also dropped, dipping 1.1 per cent in January, with an estimated 529 units changing hands compared to 535 in December. The fall was much sharper year on year, with volume down 52.7 per cent from the 1,118 units resold in January 2018.

OrangeTee & Tie head of research and consultancy Christine Sun said January's slower sales could be attributed to growing geopolitical uncertainties, rising interest rates and property cooling measures.

Considering both the general downtrend in resale demand since April 2018, and prices on the decline after July's cooling measures, she added: "These trends indicate that the private resale market may not have reached the bottom. The private resale market may continue to experience weakness due to stiffer competition from more than 60 new developments slated to be launched this year."