In contrast with 2006 and 2007, the current run is not supported by a buoyant economy and buyers will resist paying too much cash
WITH 80 per cent of Singapore’s population staying in HDB flats, one would expect the HDB market to be affected by the current recession and unemployment situation. But both the primary and secondary HDB markets appear unscathed by the current crisis. Can we expect this to continue? Resale prices
 |
| Hot property: Except for the first project, Premiere @ Tampines (above), that has been fully sold, the other five projects have sold out their 4-room flats, while some of their 5-room types have yet to find buyers |
From a modest 2 per cent increase in 2006, HDB resale prices rose 17.5 per cent in 2007, and 14.5 per cent in 2008. According to HDB’s numbers, even though HDB resale prices saw a slight dip of 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, they quickly rebounded by 1.4 per cent in Q2 to a new peak of 140.2 points. Over the past three-and-a-half years, resale prices have increased by some 38 per cent.
Current resale prices are some 2.4 per cent higher than the Q4 1996 peak. This means HDB homeowners who had bought their flats during those times can now get more than they paid if they resell their flats. Quarter-on-quarter, Q2 data show that the price increase has tapered off to just 1.4 per cent compared to the average quarterly increase of 4 per cent for 2007 and 2008.
However, the surge in resale HDB transactions that started in Q2 carried through into Q3. Transactions done by ERA’s agents, who collectively have a 45 per cent share of the HDB resale market, show that resale prices have gained some 3 per cent in Q3 over Q2. Continue reading →
Lush Dream Home 