
How much does residential property cost nowadays?
Prices for private residential properties fell in Q1 2012, but that's not the case for OCR and HDB.
Private residential home prices eased 0.1% qoq in Q1 12, causing sales to rebound in Feb, the highest since July 2009. Meanwhile, both OCR prices and HDB resale prices rose, with OCR's increase at 1.2% qoq and HDB's at 0.6% qoq in Q1 2012.
Here's more from the Quarterly Economic Review of the OCBC Bank:
The private residential property price index declined marginally from 206.2 points (-0.1% qoq) in Q1 2012 (+0.2% qoq). This is the first price decline since Q2 2009 and follows the trend of stabilising prices over the past 9 consecutive quarters.
Sales, however, rebounded in Feb to 2,413 units in Feb (highest since July 2009) and up from 1,872 units in Jan. Policy uncertainty remains.
Prices of non-landed private residential properties decreased by 0.9% in Core Central Region and 0.7% in Rest of Core Central Region in the quarter. Prices in Outside Core Central Region however increased by 1.2% compared to the 0.6% increase in the previous quarter.
HDB resale prices rose 0.6% qoq in Q1 2012, slower than the +1.7% qoq in Q4 2012 and marks the lowest RPI growth since Q3 2006 (with the exception of Q1 2009 where the RPI fell 0.8% qoq as a result of the 2008 Financial Crisis)
HDB is committed to offer 25,000 Build-to-Orer (BTO) flats in 2012. In Q1, HDB has offered 8,076 flats under Build-to-Orer (BTO) exercises and 3,825 flats under a Sale of Balance Flats exercise. HDB will be offering another 4,640 BTO flats for sale in Choa Chu Kang, Kailang/Whampoa, Punggol and Sengkang.