Singapore condo resale prices rise for fourth straight month: SRX

Wed, Dec 16, 2020

VIVIENNE TAY


RESALE prices of non-landed private homes in Singapore rose for the fourth straight month in November, flash figures from real estate portal SRX Property showed on Tuesday.

Overall prices were up 0.3 per cent from October 2020, and up 1.3 per cent from November 2019. All regions saw price increases in November 2020.

Month on month, the core central region (CCR) was up 0.5 per cent, the rest of central region (RCR) or city fringes rose 0.1 per cent, while the outside of central region (OCR) rose by 0.3 per cent.

Year on year, the RCR and OCR rose by 1.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively, while CCR prices dropped by 0.6 per cent.

Resale volumes were up 1.4 per cent to about 1,426 units resold in November, from 1,407 units resold a month ago. Volumes were 83.5 per cent higher year on year and 76 per cent higher than the five-year average volumes for the month of November.

By region, 59.7 per cent of volumes were from the OCR, 23.3 per cent was from the RCR and 17 per cent from the CCR.

Research heads from ERA Realty and PropNex expect the number of private housing units changing hands in the secondary market to exceed the 9,238 units transacted in 2019.

Nicholas Mak, ERA Realty's head of research and consultancy, estimates that 9,000 to 10,600 private housing units would exchange hands. Meanwhile, PropNex head of research and content Wong Siew Ying expects private home resale volume to potentially cross 10,500 units this year, although it is not likely to hit the 13,009 units recorded in 2018.

"With the healthy demand coming though, we expect sellers to hold asking price firm or raise the price of more attractive units," she said.

SRX showed that a unit at Nassim Jade has fetched the highest transacted price in November at S$11.7 million. The most expensive unit resold in the RCR was S$6.9 million at Corals at Keppel Bay. In the OCR, the highest transacted price was $3.6 million for a unit at The Chuan.

It said the overall transaction over X-value (TOX) for November was S$11,000 in November, from zero in October.

District 8 (Farrer Park and Serangoon Road) posted the highest median TOX at positive S$50,000, while District 14 (Eunos, Geylang and Paya Lebar) posted the lowest median TOX at negative S$4,000.

TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying (positive value) or underpaying (negative value) for a property based on SRX's computergenerated market value. The data includes only districts with more than 10 resale transactions.

For 2021, Mr Mak said the improvement in market sentiment and the return of foreign buyers could see the secondary market volume increase to 10,000 to 11,000 units next year.

Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie, anticipates that sales of resale homes may continue to rise moderately by about 8 to 10 per cent next year, to around 9,000 to 10,000 units. Prices may rise up to 1 per cent in 2021, she added.

"Investors around the world are gearing up for a steadier recovery in 2021," she said.