URA private home price index slips 0.5% q-o-q in Q4 2016; rental index also slides

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority's price index for private homes fell 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 over the previous quarter. This was a smaller decline compared with the 1.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in Q3 2016.

For the whole of 2016, prices fell 3.1 per cent, also a smaller drop compared with the 3.7 per cent decline in 2015.

For full-year 2016, prices of landed properties decreased by 4.5 per cent while prices of non-landed properties fell by 2.6 per cent.

For the whole of 2016, prices of non-landed private homes in the Core Central Region (CCR), the city fringe or Rest of Central Region (RCR) and the suburbs or Outside Central Region (OCR) declined by 1.2 per cent, 2.8 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively.

URA also said on Thursday morning that its rental index for private homes fell one per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q4 2016, after easing 1.2 per cent in the previous quarter. For the whole of 2016, rentals of private residential properties fell 4 per cent, after sliding 4.6 per cent in 2015.

For full-year 2016, rentals of landed and non-landed private residential properties shed 6.9 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively.

For the whole of last year, rentals of non-landed private homes in CCR, RCR and OCR declined 3.3 per cent, 1.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

On the sales front last year, developers sold 7,972 private homes (excluding executive condo or EC units) - higher than the 7,440 units in 2015. They also moved 3,999 EC units last year, again higher than the 2,550 EC units in 2015.

There were 7,901 resale transactions of private homes in 2016, up from 6,160 units in 2015.

URA also said that the vacancy rate of completed private residential units (excluding ECs) decreased to 8.4 per cent at the end of Q4 2016, from 8.7 per cent at the end of the previous quarter.

Vacancy rates of completed private residential properties at the end of Q4 2016 in CCR, RCR and OCR were 9.6 per cent, 9.6 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively.