HDB resale prices rise 0.3% in March, fewer units sold

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Isabelle Liew

SINGAPORE - Prices of Housing Board resale flats inched up for the sixth straight month in March, 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 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, which 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.