Singapore home prices fall further, but still to hit bottom as the city state grapples with an unprecedented recession
- A two-month lockdown imposed in the city state to contain the coronavirus outbreak led to a 1.1 per cent decline in home prices in the second quarter
- Market observers expect home prices to fall by up to 5 per cent by the end of the year
Prices of private homes dropped 1.1 per cent in the second quarter, widening from the 1 per cent drop seen from January to March, according to data released by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Wednesday.
It fell short of the 1.5 per cent decline in the third quarter of 2016. Singapore's home price had jumped 11.3 per cent between 2017 and 2019 after posting a 3.1 per cent drop in 2016.
“Developers have been pricing units sensitively, while in the resale market sellers are more realistic with their asking prices,” said Ismail Gafoor, chief executive of PropNex, a major property brokerage agency in Singapore.
The nearly two-month long lockdown imposed in Singapore since April 7, when the city state was dealing with a resurgence of the Covid-19 disease, forced developers to close show flats and put a stop to home viewings, which took a toll on sales.
Developers sold 1,343 new homes in the second quarter, a decline of nearly 38 per cent from the previous quarter, while only 725 units changed hands in the secondary private home market, some 65 per cent lower than the first quarter, according to the URA.
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PropNex’s Gafoor said that he expects private home prices to drop up to 3 per cent this year, ending three straight years of increases in Singapore’s buoyant housing market.
Colliers International, however, is much more pessimistic. The property consultancy expects private residential prices to decline by up to 5 per cent this year as “home prices are highly correlated to household income and job security”.
The pandemic has exacerbated the slowdown in the trade-dependent nation, which was already hurting from the impact of the US-China trade war.
The unemployment rate in Southeast Asian nation climbed to its highest level in a decade at 2.4 per cent in the second quarter due to the pandemic.
Singapore is the second worst affected country in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, with nearly 44,000 coronavirus cases and 26 deaths as of Wednesday. The country has been opening gradually in phases since June 19 after keeping most of its population in lockdown. Schools, shopping malls and most workplaces were closed for two months to bring the outbreak under control.
