【World Property Journal】Singapore Residential Sales Slide 14 Percent from Coronavirus in Q1

Singapore-based property consultant EDMUND TIE & Company is reporting this week that overall private home prices in Singapore fell by 1.0 per cent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) in Q1 2020, according to their URA All Residential Property Price Index.

Both the Non-Landed Property Price Index (PPI) and the Landed Property Price Index also registered q-o-q declines of 1.0 and 0.9 per cent in Q1 2020 respectively. While this was the second consecutive quarter of decrease for the Non-Landed PPI, this was the first quarter of decline for the Landed PPI after two consecutive quarters of increase. However, on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, both PPIs still posted growth with 2.0 percent change for Non-Landed PPI and 3.6 per cent y-o-y increase for Landed PPI for the first quarter this year.

The decline in prices came amid the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown, dampening market sentiments and muted demand for homes as local homebuyers held back their purchase plans to assess their financial positions. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns in many countries, restricting short-term visitors and potential foreign homebuyers entering Singapore. As the number of new cases of COVID-19 heightened since March 2020, stepped up restrictions on people mobility in Singapore such as social distancing and caps on the number of visitors to residential show flats have reduced purchasing and leasing activities, impacting the private home transactions and prices.

Against the backdrop of slowdown in housing demand amid weakened sentiments, total transaction volume of private homes declined for the second consecutive quarter by 14.4 percent q-o-q to 4,174 homes in Q1 2020, the lowest since Q1 2019, when total sales amounted to 3,743 units. As there were fewer launches in Q1 2020 (10 projects compared to 12 in Q4 2019) and homebuyers turned more cautious amid economic uncertainties and the COVID-19 pandemic, new sales decreased by 12.0 per cent q-o-q to 2,149 units in Q1 2020, constituting 51.5 per cent of total private home sales. Transaction volume in the resale market fell by a larger 16.8 percent q-o-q to 2,025 units.

READ MORE