Private home prices down 0.7% in Q1

Posted on 25 Apr 2016 | Comments Off on Private home prices down 0.7% in Q1

Prices of private residential properties in Singapore fell by 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the 0.5 percent decline in the previous quarter, according to complete data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday, 22 April.

In the Outside Central Region (OCR), prices dropped by 1.3 percent after remaining unchanged in the previous quarter. Prices of non-landed properties in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) remained unchanged, compared to the previous 0.4 percent decline. Prices of non-landed properties in the Core Central Region (CCR) rose by 0.3 percent, compared to the previous 0.3 percent decline. Prices of landed properties fell by 1.1 percent, compared to the 1.8 percent decrease in the previous quarter.

Property Price Index of private residential properties

Source: URA

Rentals of private residential properties fell by 1.3 percent in Q1 2016, the same rate of decline as in the previous quarter.

Rental prices fell across all segments of the market. Rentals of non-landed properties fell by 1.7 percent in the CCR, 0.6 percent in the RCR and 1.2 percent in the OCR, compared to declines of 0.4 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent respectively in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, rentals of landed properties declined by 2.2 percent, compared with the 2.3 percent decline in the previous quarter.

Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers launched 953 uncompleted private condos for sale in Q1, compared to the 1,333 units in the previous quarter. As for ECs, developers launched 534 units for sale, compared to the 505 units launched previously.

Meanwhile, developers sold a total of 1,419 units, excluding ECs, in Q1, compared to the 1,603 units sold in the previous quarter. As for ECs, they sold 762 units over the same period, compared to 573 in the previous three-month period.

Lewis Ng, Managing Director, PropertyGuru Singapore, said: “While the residential property market saw overall prices and transactions fall by 0.7 percent and 11 percent respectively, PropertyGuru saw an eight percent increase in queries for properties for sale over the same period.

“This indicates that Singaporeans are still greatly interested in the property market, doing their research and viewing properties. Many consumers are just biding their time for prices to drop sufficiently, and exploring their options thoroughly before buying a home.”

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MAS eases monetary policy, to stop Singapore dollar from rising

Posted on 14 Apr 2016 | Comments Off on MAS eases monetary policy, to stop Singapore dollar from rising

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it is setting the rate of appreciation of the Singapore dollar policy band at zero percent in a surprise easing of its monetary policy announced on Thursday (14 April).

“This is not a policy to depreciate the domestic currency,” MAS said, adding that it only removed the modest and gradual appreciation path of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$NEER) policy band that was in place.

“The width of the policy band and the level at which it is centred will be unchanged,” it added.

The central bank, which uses the Singapore dollar instead of interest rates to guide the economy, manages monetary policy by letting the local currency rise or fall against the currencies of its main trading partners.

After the 6.2 percent expansion recorded in Q4 last year, Singapore’s economy stalled in Q1 and registered a flat growth on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised basis, the advanced estimates by the Ministry of Trade and Industry revealed.

Meanwhile, MAS Core Inflation has also been subdued.

According to MAS, the Singapore economy is “projected to expand at a more modest pace in 2016 than envisaged in the October policy review. MAS Core Inflation should also pick up more gradually over the course of 2016 than previously anticipated, and is now likely to fall below 2 percent on average over the medium term.”

It added that the move to a neutral policy stance of zero percent appreciation follows the measured steps that the central bank has taken to reduce the rate of appreciation of the policy band in January and October 2015 respectively.

“The actual outcome of S$NEER movements over the six months since October 2015 has in fact been a zero percent appreciation compared to the preceding six-month period,” it said. “The cumulative effects of past S$NEER movements and the new policy path will continue to ensure price stability over the medium term,” it added.

Following the announcement, the Singapore dollar weakened 0.9 percent to $1.36 levels to the US dollar—its weakest since March 29. At around 11.22am, the Singdollar was trading at $1.3610 to the greenback from Wednesday’s close of $1.3501.

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