S’pore Q2 private home sales climb up by 5.3%: URA

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 23 Jul 2010

Private home prices in Singapore continued to trend up but at a slower pace.

Data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed that overall prices rose by 5.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2010, compared to 5.6 per cent in the first three months of the year.

This was marginally higher than the initial forecast of a 5.2 per cent climb for Q2 reported earlier this month.

The increase pushed the residential property price index to an all-time high, surpassing the market peak of 181.4 points in Q2 of 1996.

URA says prices of private residential, office, shop and industrial properties all increased by between 3.9 and 5.7 per cent in the second quarter.

Rentals of private residential properties, office, shop and industrial properties, meanwhile, were higher by between 0.5 and 5.9 per cent.

Price of private residential properties in the city and prime districts went up by 5.4 per cent.

While homes in the city fringe cost 4.6 per cent more in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, prices of private suburban homes rose by 5.7 per cent during the period.

URA says as at the second quarter, there were close to 62,000 private residential units in the pipeline.

It comprises supply from projects already under construction and those that had been granted planning approval but not yet constructed.

Of those, some 32,500 units were still unsold.

This number is equivalent to about three years of supply based on the average take-up of about 11,300 units per year over the last three years.