Prices of residential properties may have fallen over the past
few months, but they are still too expensive and buyers are increasingly
waiting on the sidelines for prices to drop further, a survey has showed.
Nearly a quarter, or 22%, of respondents do not plan to purchase
property at the moment, up from 10% six months ago, showed a half-yearly Asia
Property Market Sentiment Report by real estate portal iProperty.com. Some of
the reasons cited include high prices and the challenge of the down payment.
“Buyers are biding their time, with affordability and financing
as top concerns. While the number of respondents who intend to purchase within
the next 24 months remains the same at 51%, buyers may wait for new and resale
private condo prices to fall … The market is now correcting after the rapid
rise over the last few years, and demand is there at the right price point,”
said Mr Sean Tan, general manager of iProperty.com Singapore.
Several rounds of cooling measures have seen the value of both
private and public properties fall. In the second quarter of this year, private
home prices were about 3% off the peak in the third quarter of 2013, while
public resale home prices were down 5% from its peak in the second quarter of
last year, data by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Housing and
Development Board showed.
A majority of the survey respondents, or 53%, think that both
new and resale private condominiums will see further price declines this year.
Against that backdrop, the survey saw a 15 percentage point increase in the
number of home owners who want to sell their properties, compared with six
months ago.
“The report shows that both property sellers and buyers are
nervous a year after the start of the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR). In the
second half of 2013 report, just after the TDSR was announced, 59% of owners
were confident their properties would retain its value; now only 38% think so,
a decline of 21 percentage points. Another 25% are unsure if the value will be
retained,” said Mr Tan.
The survey, which polled 2,805
respondents in Singapore,
also found that a majority of them, or 56%, are in favour of the Government’s
decision to keep cooling measures in place despite repeated calls by industry
practitioners to tweak some of the curbs.
Source:
CNA
Click on link below to read
the full report....all 140 pages of it. For those who are only
interested in the Singapore
residential market, start reading from page 103.
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