HDB flats resale prices continue to slide, down 1% in Q1

 Flash estimates of the Resale Price Index for the first quarter of 2015 showed a 1 per cent decline in the prices of Housing and Development Board flats over the previous quarter, HDB announced on Wednesday (Apr 1).

The flash estimate for the index is 135.6, HDB said, down from 137.0 in the previous quarter. It added that the RPI for the full quarter will be released on Apr 24, along with more detailed public housing data.

This is the second quarter in which the index is calculated using the newly-adopted Stratified Hedonic Regression method, which "will control for variations in flat attributes of the resale flats transacted, thus better reflecting price changes over time", the HDB said in an earlier release.

In its Apr 1 statement, HDB said that about 4,040 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats will be offered in Clementi, Punggol North, Sembawang and Tampines in May, and about 5,000 flats will be offered in a concurrent Sale of Balance Flats exercise. More information on the flats to be offered under the May 2015 BTO exercise is available on the HDB InfoWEB, it added.