The recent slew of property cooling measures has pushed buyers away from resale homes and into the primary market, experts noted.
Last month, only 572 resale units changed hands, which is 54 percent lower than the 1,240 homes sold during the same period in 2012. Along with lower demand, prices also dropped – highlighted by a 0.4 percent decline from March to April, reported The Straits Times.
“Buyers are more interested in new sales as they are newer and they are buying for investment and capital appreciation,” said Eugene Lim, Key Executive Officer at ERA Realty.
He added that resale demand is expected to decline further as new housing supply is ramped up. Correspondingly, the sales volume would also slip in the coming months.
Meanwhile, fresh data suggests that the price drop in April was most evident in the city centre and city fringe. Average city centre prices were down 1.9 percent from March to S$1,772 psf, while prices in the city fringe fell 1.9 percent to S$1,267 psf in April.
These declines outweighed the increase in suburban resale prices.
Rents also slipped one percent island-wide, with both city fringe and suburban areas posting dips. The city fringe saw the biggest drop of 4.4 percent to S$3.94 psf per month in April, while the suburbs saw a marginal 0.9 percent decline to S$3.13 psf per month.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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