http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...ricts-20130608
RESALE NON-LANDED PRIVATE HOMES: OCT TO APRIL
Prices up in all but four districts
Area with biggest drop over seven months was District 8
Published on Jun 08, 2013
By Melissa Tan
RESALE prices of non-landed private homes have climbed almost islandwide from October to April but dropped in four districts, mostly in the city centre.
If new sales are factored in, eight districts recorded overall price drops from the start of the fourth quarter last year to the start of this year's second quarter.
The area with the biggest resale price drop over the seven months was the prime District 8 which includes Little India.
Resale prices there tumbled 12.2 per cent from $1,320 per sq ft (psf) in October to $1,159 psf in April, consultancy HSR's analysis of caveats lodged with the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed.
The drop was primarily due to resale transactions in April at the 44-unit Jalan Besar Plaza which is along Kitchener Road, HSR said. A 915 sq ft unit at the freehold development, which was completed in 1980, changed hands at $874 psf. Another unit of 1,593 sq ft was sold at $1,006 psf.
The other districts where median resale prices were lower in April compared with October were districts 7, 10 and 26, but the dips were very slight.
District 7, which includes the Middle Road and Golden Mile areas, had a median resale price drop of 0.9 per cent, from $1,342 psf in October to $1,330 psf in April.
In the plush District 10 which includes the Ardmore, Bukit Timah, Holland Road and Tanglin areas, median resale prices fell 1.3 per cent from $1,661 psf in October to $1,639 psf in April.
For the suburban District 26, which includes Upper Thomson, the median price drop was 1.9 per cent from $911.5 psf in October to $894 psf in April.
District 8 also posted the biggest price drop islandwide from March to April at a sharp 21.6 per cent.
The next largest decline from March to April was in District 12 which includes Balestier, Toa Payoh and Serangoon. The median resale price in the district fell 16.6 per cent month on month.
This was mainly because a shoebox unit at the freehold 154-unit Prestige Heights in Balestier Road was sold at $2,119 psf in March, which is the highest psf price commanded so far for the development. It skewed the district's median price upwards that month.
But if new sale transactions are counted, there have been fairly large overall price drops in some other districts.
The biggest fall was in Seletar, which is in District 28, where overall median prices plummeted 18.3 per cent from $1,179 psf in October to $963 psf in April.
This was mainly driven by project launches. Most transactions in April in Seletar were new sales at H2O Residences, where units were sold at $908 psf to $1,006 psf.
In October, many new sales were lodged for Seletar Park Residence, which had an average price of $1,191 psf that month.
The second-biggest overall price drop was in District 4 which covers Telok Blangah and HarbourFront.
Prices sank 15.7 per cent from $1,792 psf in October to $1,511 psf in April, partly due to lower new sale prices at The Interlace. Units there were sold at a median $913 psf, much lower than the $1,240 psf median in September. There were no new sales there in October.
Among individual developments, Harbour View Towers in District 4 had the biggest median price drop across Singapore at 34 per cent, from $1,269 psf in October to $838 psf in April.
This is a different project from Harbour View Gardens in Pasir Panjang, where an attempted collective sale hit a snag when the court refused to clear it in April.
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