The View | Will Singapore’s public housing prices keep rising this year?
- Concerns have been raised about affordability in Singapore’s public housing system, with prices in the secondary market up 12.7 per cent last year
- However, million-dollar transactions are a fraction of the total, and the government is making efforts to ramp up supply of build-to-order flats
Since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted, house prices the world over have gone through the roof. A global index of home values produced by Knight Frank showed that the average price of a home in 56 countries and territories increased 10.3 per cent last year, with nearly half the markets tracked registering annual price growth of more than 10 per cent.
However, the measures to dampen demand were far more modest in the segment of the market where the price increases have been the sharpest. In the secondary, or resale, market for government-subsidised apartments, prices rose 12.7 per cent last year, with transactions up 25.3 per cent, according to the Housing and Development Board (HDB), Singapore’s public housing authority.
Last month, a five-bedroom apartment at the Pinnacle@Duxton, a landmark 50-storey, seven-tower development next to the central business district, was sold for a jaw-dropping S$1.39 million, the highest price for a government-subsidised flat.