Resale prices of city-fringe condos hit record high in October: SRX

Overall, volume for private non-landed resales in first 10 months is 46% higher than that for all of 2016

Wed, Nov 15, 2017


RESALE prices for condos and private apartments in the city fringe or Rest of Central Region (RCR) reached a new high last month, going by SRX Property's flash estimates.

The index for RCR reached a new peak at 184.6 last month, exceeding the previous high of 182.1 back in August 2013. SRX Property's indices go back to January 1995.

On a month-on-month basis, its resale price index for non-landed private homes in RCR posted a 1.5 per cent gain in October 2017.

The price index for the suburbs, or Outside Central Region (OCR), rose even faster at 1.7 per cent. In the prime area or Core Central Region (CCR), prices inched up 0.3 per cent.

As a result, SRX Property's overall resale price index for private apartments and condo units rose 1.3 per cent in October 2017 over September 2017.

This followed a 0.1 per cent month-on-month rise in the overall index in September 2017. The index is up 6.3 per cent year-on-year from October 2016 though still 2.9 per cent shy of the peak in January 2014.

On year-on-year basis, the price index for RCR outshone the other two regions, with a 7.5 per cent gain. This was followed by a 6.4 per cent increase for the CCR and a 5.5 per cent increase for the OCR.

SRX estimated that overall, 1,461 non-landed private residential units were resold in October 2017, up 18.7 per cent from the 1,231 units resold in September 2017.

Year-on-year, the resale volume in October 2017 was up 122 per cent from the 658 units resold in October 2016, but 28.7 per cent below the peak of 2,050 units in April 2010.

SRX Property said that the private resale non-landed volume for the first 10 months of the year is 46 per cent higher than that for the whole of 2016. It predicts the volume for the whole of this year will be around 12,600 units - up 65 per cent from last year's 7,633 units.

OrangeTee & Tie's head of research and consultancy Wong Xian Yang expects resale volumes of private homes to continue growing as demand returns to ride the expected upturn in the property market.

He suggests that the record resale prices for city-fringe non-landed private homes could have been fuelled by the surge in land prices in the region for both private-sector collective sale sites as well as Government Land Sale sites.

"Those selling private apartments and condos units in RCR in the resale market are holding firm or raising their asking prices, as higher land prices tend to augur well for future property prices," said Mr Wong.