Singapore condo resale prices up 0.9% in April for 3rd straight monthly rise: SRX

RESALE prices for non-landed private residential units rose 0.9 per cent in April 2019, for a third straight month-on-month rise, according to SRX flash estimates on Tuesday.

For the first four months of the year, non-landed resale prices are up about 2 per cent, according to data from the real estate portal.

Year on year, resale prices are up 3.6 per cent, with the core central region, rest of central region and outside central region recording price increases of 3.1 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively.

Volume however, remained "well below 2018", with the number of units resold in April falling 48.4 per cent year on year to 830 units. However, this was 3.4 per cent higher than the March's 803 resales, which was the highest volume since the latest property cooling measures were implemented in July last year.

OrangeTee & Tie research and consultancy head Christine Sun said price increases did not deter buyers from purchasing resale homes last month, as volumes had risen. She added that the resale market could have experienced some spill-over demand from the primary market.

SRX's overall medium transaction over X-value (TOX) was positive S$10,000 in April, the highest since October 2018. TOX had increased by S$14,000, compared with negative S$4,000 TOX for the previous month.

TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying or underpaying on a property based on SRX Property's computer-generated market value.

Among districts with more than 10 resale transactions, District 2's Anson and Tanjong Pagar posted the highest medium TOX of positive S$50,000. Meanwhile the lowest median TOX went to District 4's Telok Blangah and Harbourfront of negative S$34,000.

Ms Sun said there could be a correlation between new launches and the positive TOX recorded in April.

"Taking the cue from nearby project launches, some sellers could have raised their asking prices," Ms Sun said. This includes new projects such as Marina One Residences and Wallich Residence which were launched in District 1 and 2.