URA’s Q3 data points to strengthening property market; supply pipelines shrink, but may bulk up later
THE property market appears to be improving across the board – a trend underlined by Urban Redevelopment Authority’s data for the third quarter.
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Private home prices rose sharply in Q3 over the preceding three months, while prices of office, shop and flatted factory space fell at a slower pace in Q3 than in Q2.
Property rentals – for offices, shops and industrial space as well as most categories of private homes – declined at a more modest rate in Q3.
In tandem with a more cheerful economic climate, positive demand returned to the office market, after three consecutive quarters of negative take-up from Q4 last year to Q2 2009. Supply pipelines are shrinking – although there’s still ample supply of offices, shops and industrial space. Vacancy rates increased in Q3 for private homes, offices, factory space but decreased for shops and warehouses. URA’s numbers show that the overall private home price index increased by 15.8 per cent in Q3 over Q2, a tad shy of the 15.9 per cent jump reflected in its earlier flash estimate for the same period. The latest rise in the index reversed four preceding quarters of declines.
In the primary market, developers sold a record 5,578 private homes in Q3, up 19.9 per cent from Q2. In the secondary market, the number of resale units sold rose 17.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter to 4,883. However, subsales (these cover projects that have not received Certificate of Statutory Completion) slid 19.3 per cent to 1,057 units. Subsales’ share of total private home sales fell from 12.9 per cent in Q2 this year to 9.2 per cent in Q3 – the first time that it has slipped below the 10 per cent mark since Q1 2007. Continue reading
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