Singapore home prices fell for the first time in three years in the second quarter, suggesting the market is cooling on the back of the city-state’s latest property curbs.
Private property values slid 0.4 percent from the previous three months, when they rose 3.3 percent, flash estimates released yesterday by the Singaporean Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed.
That is the first decline since the first quarter of 2020.
File photo: AFP
Price momentum might finally be easing after a buoyant run that saw Singapore’s red-hot property market defy a global slowdown from London to Shanghai.
To keep a lid on apartment prices, the government doubled stamp duties for foreign buyers in April to 60 percent — the highest among major markets. It also raised levies for second-home buyers.
“We believe the recent moderation in prices was driven by the latest round of property cooling measures in April, and we expect prices to edge up for the rest of the year,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note yesterday.
The bank projected 5 percent price growth for the full year.
While prices fell last quarter, transaction volume increased by about 16 percent from the previous three months, URA said.
“We are continuing to see signs of moderation in the property market,” Singaporean Minister for National Development Desmond Lee (李智陞) wrote on Facebook after the figures were released. “We have also continued to increase housing supply to meet the demand.”
Singapore’s property frenzy has also reached the market for public homes. An index of Housing & Development Board resale prices reached a new high in the second quarter, rising 1.4 percent from the previous three months, marking the 13th straight quarter of gains.
A public housing unit was resold for a record S$1.5 million (US$1.1 million) last month.
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