Reported in BT today: Private home prices outstrip peak of '96

Private home prices in Singapore have now surpassed the former all-time peak they achieved in 1996, official data shows.


Flash estimates released yesterday said that private home prices in Singapore rose 5.2% in Q2 2010 after climbing 5.6% in the first three months of the year.

This brings the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) price index for private residential property to 184.1 points – 1.5% higher than the previous pre-Asian crisis peak of 181.4 points in Q2 1996.

Homes in the “outside central region” (a proxy for suburban mass-market locations) led the price increase with a 5.7% quarter-on-quarter climb in Q2.

Prices in the “core central region” (which includes the prime Districts 9 and 10, the financial district and Sentosa Cove) rose 5.1% while prices in the “rest of central region” rose 4.5%.

Home prices in the outside central region and rest of central region are higher than they were during the recent 2008 peaks. But prices in the high-end core central region are still about 2% below the 2008 peak.

While prices climbed across all three regions, analysts pointed out that recent government measures to cool the market have worked to some extent as the price growth has now slowed down for three consecutive quarters – although the deceleration in growth has been slower than what was hoped for, particularly in the mass-market segment.

There is also increasing price resistance, as demonstrated by more than 50% drop in sales of new homes in May. Developers sold just 1,078 private homes – about half the 2,208 units they transacted in April.

Most analysts expect private home prices to rise a total of 12-15% for the whole of 2010.

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