Home prices continue slide in Q1

[SINGAPORE] Prices of both private homes and HDB resale flats continued their slide in the first quarter of this year based on the government's flash estimates, and this is expected to set the tone for the rest of this year.

The drop in resale flat prices - by 1.5 per cent, for the third consecutive quarter, according to HDB's Resale Price Index (RPI) - is starting to be seen as holding HDB upgraders back from taking the leap into private property.

But it is still the current cooling measures and more competitive pricing by developers that have been the main drag on private home prices.

URA said yesterday that its private residential property index fell 1.3 per cent islandwide over the first three months, after a 0.9 per cent decline in the fourth quarter. This was in tandem with the decline i…