The overall price index for non-landed private homes in Singapore surged 2.5 percent in April over the previous month, according to the latest estimates released by the National University of Singapore.
The latest figures reflect an increase of six percent since end-2009, and a 32.8 percent improvement from the low figures in March 2009 when the country’s property market bottomed out after the global economic crisis.
However, the Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) from NUS is expected to grow at a slower pace or even remain still for May this year, said Ong Choon Fah, executive director (consulting) at DTZ.
Sentiment in the real estate market had already begun to decline in April on the back of growing concerns about the Euro debt crisis, as well as the fall in the stock market.
The government’s announcement last month that it will release a bumper supply of land for sale in the second half of this year to meet demand is also causing potential home buyers to be more cautious.
“Despite continuing interest among residents to own a private property, one does not feel great urgency to buy. Potential buyers are taking more time to evaluate while they await greater clarity in the big picture. Right now, we’re getting a lot of ‘noise’ due to mixed signals from economic indicators from abroad,” said Mrs. Ong.
Agreeing with this, another real estate consultant said that the NUS indices may start to fizzle out in May and may show a decline this month. These indices only include completed properties and thus tend to lag the market for new launches, where things have been slowing down over the past few weeks.
NUS’s price index for non-landed homes for April in the central region jumped at a faster rate over the previous months than those in the non-central region.
Singapore’s central region, including districts 1-4 and districts 9-11, recorded a three percent increase compared with only 2.1 percent in the non-central region.
But the year-to-date growth for the non-central region reached 6.8 percent, surpassing a five-percent increase in the central region.
Additionally, the index for the central region is now 37.8 percent above the post-financial crisis low in March 2009, while the appreciation for the non-central region has been on a much slower pace of about 30.3 percent over the same period.