In the rest of central region, the highest transacted price was a Coral At Keppel Bay unit which went for $8.75 million. THE STRAITS TIMES/ANN
Resale prices for non-landed private residential properties in Singapore continued their rise last month following an increase in September, while volumes picked up from a slight dip, flash figures from real estate portal SRX Property showed on Tuesday.
Condominium resale prices rose 0.8 per cent last month from September, faster than the 0.4 per cent increase in September following three straight months of small dips. Sales volume for the month rose 3.6 per cent with 807 units resold compared with 779 units in September.
Year-on-year, condo resale prices were up 2.0 per cent, while volumes were 14.8 per cent higher. Resale volume was also 6.3 per cent higher than the five-year average volume for the month of October.
All regions saw month-on-month price increases, with prices in the core central region (CCR) seeing the highest rise at 1.0 per cent. Prices in the outside of central region (OCR) were up 0.8 per cent, while prices in the city fringes – or rest of central region (RCR) – were up 0.7 per cent.
Last month, 53 per cent of the volume came from OCR, followed by 27.5 per cent from RCR and 19.5 per cent from CCR.
The highest transacted price for a resale unit for last month went to a unit at The Marq On Paterson Hill for S$29.5 million (US$21.7 million), which translated to about S$4,677 per square foot (US$37,000 per square metre).
In the RCR, the highest transacted price was a Coral At Keppel Bay unit which went for S$8.75 million. As for the OCR, the highest transacted price was a Mandarin Gardens unit resold for S$2.7 million.
Strong underlying demand and market optimism for new homes may have “spilled-over” to the secondary market, OrangeTee & Tie research and consultancy head Christine Sun said. This led to an uplifting of both prices and sales volume for the resale market last month.
But while prices of resale homes have increased last month, the price growth is still slower than that of many new home sales, she said. Hence, some buyers may have considered buying resale homes since resale prices have risen slower than new home prices in general.
ERA Realty research and consultancy head Nicholas Mak said buoyancy in the condo resale market was partly due to the effects from the marketing activities of new launches in September and October. This drew home buyers to the market, including those buying in the resale market.
“Hence, the marketing activities in the primary market had stimulated the resale transaction volume, which in turn led to an increase in the resale price index,” he said.
New condominiums launched in September include Cuscaden Reserve, Avenue South Residences, Meyer Mansion, The Antares and Uptown @ Farrer.
Projects such as Sengkang Grand Residences, Royalgreen, Midtown Bay, Neu at Novena and Midwood were launched last month.
After being stuck in negative territory since July, the overall transaction over X-value (TOX) improved by S$10,000 from September to reach S$0 last month.
TOX measures how much a buyer is overpaying (positive value) or underpaying (negative value) for a property based on SRX’s computer-generated market value. The data only includes districts with more than 10 resale transactions. A S$0 TOX means buyers are buying units at the estimated market value.
The highest median TOX was recorded in District 20’s Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Thomson with a positive S$30,000 value, followed by District 4’s Sentosa and Harbourfront at a positive S$28,000 value.
The lowest median TOX, meanwhile, was recorded in District 26’s Mandai and Upper Thomson with a negative S$35,000 value, followed by District 25’s Admiralty and Woodlands at a negative S$30,000 value.
Moving forward, OrangeTee’s Sun said resale home demand may continue to rise especially in areas where there are currently many newly-launched projects.
But there could also be some downward pressure on resale home demand due to the completion of more private homes in recent months, along with the supply of new homes being slated to grow further.
“Therefore, resale home prices may continue to rise albeit at a slower pace for the rest of the year,” she said.
THE STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
