SINGAPORE HOME PRICES MAY SHOOT UP FURTHER


SINGAPORE HOME PRICES MAY SHOOT UP FURTHER
Oct 4, 2012
       
Singapore’s residential market remains busy, despite a less than rosy economic forecast with GDP growth trimmed to 2.4 percent this year, according to the latest report from Savills.

Savills noted that the US government’s fresh round of quantitative easing (QE3) will likely push Singapore property prices up further.

“The bulkheads of Singapore’s housing market are still firm, at a time when global economies are being serially depth-charged by crisis after crisis, and we may in fact benefit from QE3,” said Alan Cheong, Director at Savills Research.

According to the report, the first eight months of 2012 witnessed strong sales volumes, with approximately 15,300 new homes sold, almost hitting the full-year total for 2011.

Moreover, the median price of resale condos grew 4.0 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3 while median prices of new non-landed homes fell 11 percent. As for luxury units tracked by Savills, prices grew two percent quarter-on-quarter.

Many new launches are expected to be unveiled from large Government Land Sales (GLS) sites, with developers expected to release more residential units for sale within the next six months. For instance, there is the 383-unit Waterbay executive condominium (EC) project by Qingjian Realty Pte Ltd and The Topiary, a 700-unit EC project by Kheng Leong Group.

Moving forward, Savills is “cautiously optimistic that property prices may be poised to trend higher, possibly rising up to 10 percent in the coming months”, buoyed by low interest rates and increased capital flows following QE3.

In addition, savvy overseas buyers are likely to look for good deals in the mid- to high-end segments.

“The influx of such hot money usually precipitates into the formation of property bubbles. For Singapore, which has no capital controls, more cooling measures may be in store if the authorities wish to sterilise the excess liquidity entering the real estate sector and prevent a property bubble from forming,” the report added.

Info courtesy - PropertyGuru