Resale prices of non-landed private homes hit 16-month low

Resale prices of non-landed private homes hit a 16-month low in April, even as resale volume reached its highest since October 2013, a report by the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) showed.

Overall resale prices of non-landed private residential properties slipped by 1.7 per cent last month, the lowest since December 2012.

An estimated 476 resale transactions were registered in April, up 24.6 per cent from the previous month. On a year-on-year basis, resale volume still posted a 26.7 per cent drop compared to 649 units resold in the same month of last year.

Prices in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) led the fall by dropping 3.6 per cent, followed by a 2.3 per cent drop in the Core Central Region (CCR). However, prices in Outside Central Region (OCR) inched up by 0.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, rental volume remained flat.

According to transaction data from SRX member companies, an estimated 3,202 units were rented last month, almost flat from March's 3,206 rental transactions.

On a year-on-year basis, rental volume improved by 9.8 per cent from the 2,917 rental contracts signed in April 2013.

Rental prices edged up 0.2 per cent, after reaching a 27-month low in March. The uptick in rental prices was mainly driven by RCR, which saw a 0.5 per cent increase.

However rental prices in CCR and OCR continued to soften by 0.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, non-landed private resale prices continued to face downward pressure.

The overall median Transaction Over X-value (TOX), which measures how much people pay over recent transaction prices, remained negative at - S$20,000 in April. This means more than half of all non-landed private property buyers pay below recent transaction prices for their units last month. This is a drop of S$5,000 from March.

A majority of districts -- 19 out of 27 -- saw negative median TOX in April.

Among districts with more than 10 resale transactions, district 9 (Orchard, Cairnhill, River Valley) and 12 (Balestier, Toa Payoh, part of Serangoon) had the lowest TOX at - S$130,000 and - S$40,000 respectively.

Only district 10 (Bukit Timah, Holland Road, Tanglin) and 19 (Part of Serangoon, Hougang, Punggol) had positive TOX of S$37,500 and S$16,000 respectively. 

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