SINGAPORE – Prices of Housing Board resale flats inched up in March for the sixth straight month, which analysts attributed to firm demand for larger units and the rising number of million-dollar flat transactions.
Prices were up by 0.3 per cent in March, rising at a slower pace than the 0.5 per cent rise in February, flash data from real estate portals Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) and 99.co showed on April 8.
Year on year, prices climbed by 6.2 per cent.
Ms Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at property firm OrangeTee Group, said that despite the slower price growth, the overall growth rate over the past six months has picked up pace.
She noted that HDB resale prices rose by 3.8 per cent between September 2023 and March 2024, higher than the 2.3 per cent increase in the preceding six months from March to September 2023.
“Therefore, sales momentum may have slowed in the light of the sharper price increase over the last six months,” she added.
Fewer resale flats were sold in March, with transactions dipping by 3.3 per cent to an estimated 2,063 units, SRX and 99.co data showed.
Compared with March 2023, resale volume was 9.8 per cent lower.
Ms Sun said that some demand could have shifted to the HDB’s sales exercise in February, when more than 4,100 Build-To-Order flats and 1,500 Sale of Balance Flats were on offer.
Sixty-one flats changed hands for at least $1 million in March, higher than the 50 such transactions in February.
Of the million-dollar HDB resale flats sold in March, 19 were four-room units, 24 were five-room flats, 16 were executive apartments, and two were multi-generation flats.
Most of them were in mature estates such as Toa Payoh, Kallang/Whampoa, Bukit Merah and Clementi, while nine were in non-mature towns Bukit Panjang, Yishun, Jurong East and Hougang.
These transactions made up about 3 per cent of total transactions in March, a higher proportion than the 2.3 per cent in February.
The most expensive resale flat was a five-room, 1,202 sq ft unit between the 19th and 21st storeys at Block 9A Boon Tiong Road in Tiong Bahru – it sold for $1.45 million.
A 1,765 sq ft multi-generation flat in Yishun Avenue 4 fetched $1.2 million, the top transaction in a non-mature estate in March.
In Hougang, six executive flats were sold for at least $1 million each – the highest number of million-dollar transactions in the non-mature town in a month, said Ms Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at real estate company PropNex Realty.
Mr Mark Yip, chief executive of property firm Huttons Asia, noted a stronger demand for five-room and larger flats, attributing it to private home owners who served their 15-month wait-out period after selling their homes and entering the HDB resale market.
The wait-out period is a temporary measure rolled out in September 2022 to cool the resale market.
Compared with February, five-room flats recorded the highest price increase of 1 per cent, while prices of three-room flats dipped by 0.1 per cent and executive units were down 0.5 per cent.
Mr Yip added that seven of the nine million-dollar flat transactions lodged in Toa Payoh were at the Toa Payoh Crest project, which recently reached its five-year minimum occupation period.
“Toa Payoh Crest is well located and in close proximity to MRT stations, schools and amenities. It is likely to see more such transactions in the coming months,” he said.
Ms Wong also said that flats with a remaining lease of 90 years and above made up a higher proportion of overall transactions in March at 26.8 per cent, slightly higher than the 26.4 per cent in February.
“As newer flats tend to fetch higher prices, it is possible that they have helped to support overall resale prices,” she added.
Ms Wong said she expects the number of million-dollar flat transactions to remain high in April. Based on April 8 data, 16 resale flats have changed hands for at least $1 million each so far in April, she said.
