Singapore has emerged as one of the world’s five weakest housing markets, revealed the latest survey from Global Property Guide.
Home prices in the city-state fell 3.45 percent during the year to Q1 2015, its sixth consecutive quarter of decline. Prices dipped 1.12 percent quarter-on-quarter during the previous quarter.
This comes as both demand and supply fell across the country. In the first quarter of 2015, the number of private homes sold plunged 27 percent to 1,258 units, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). The number of private homes launched also plummeted around 40 percent to 1,189 units in the period.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) stated that Singapore’s economy expanded by a modest 2.6 percent in Q1 2015 from the year before, up from the previous quarter’s 2.1 percent growth. The economy is expected to grow between two and four percent this year, after rising 2.9 percent in 2014.
Aside from Singapore, the world’s other weakest housing markets include the UAE (Dubai), China (Beijing), Russia and the Ukraine (Kiev).
Meanwhile, Ireland has emerged as the fastest growing property market, with residential prices surging 17.57 percent during the year to end-Q1 2015. It was followed by Hong Kong, Estonia, Sweden and Israel.
The Global Property Guide is a research house and website dedicated to residential property. It covers market trends in 101 countries.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
