Source : Business Times - 5 Aug 2008
ANECDOTALLY, private residential property prices in Singapore are now at or near their highest. Paradoxically, however, URA’s Private Residential Property Price Index appears to suggest otherwise.
When asked about his outlook for the Singapore residential property market, CapitaLand group president and CEO Liew Mun Leong said: ‘In the high-end, there’s not going to be massive demand. (In terms of prices) obviously it won’t be the $5,600 psf record price that we achieved for a penthouse at Orchard Residences last year. But prices will still be above $3,000 psf.’
He added: ‘So prices will still be way above the last peak, pre-Asian crisis.’ (BT, Aug 2-3, 200 
In the last peak pre-Asian financial crisis, units at Ardmore Park, generally accepted as the top-end then, were, with few exceptions, commanding about $2,000 psf only.
In contrast, the mid-range seems now stretch to $3,000 psf. We also see mass market projects priced at up to or beyond $1,000 psf these days. Such price levels also are lofty compared with their 1996 counterparts. Prices for the various landed property segments also are evidently higher now than then.
Yet URA’s Residential Property Index for Q208, though at a recent high, is still lower than its 1996 peak. How so? And although its detached and condominium indexes do show marginal gains over 1996’s, its semi-detached index is still at a deficit of 20 per cent.
One presumes the URA index to be a quick reference for price levels and trends. A layman may thus glance cursorily at it and jump to certain inappropriate conclusions.
URA should explain this anomaly as an exercise in public education. Or it should review the index’s underlying construction to ensure its continued relevance.
Kenneth Pang Cheow Jow
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