Resale private home prices fall by 0.4%

SINGAPORE — Resale prices of completed non-landed private homes continued to fall last month, showed Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) flash estimates released yesterday, dragged down by an acceleration in the decline in prices of shoebox apartments.

The SRPI, compiled by the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Institute of Real Estate Studies, showed overall prices falling by 0.4 per cent last month from the month earlier, the same pace as in January, with declines registered across the board.

Prices of shoebox homes — those with a floor area of 506 sq ft and below — fell 1 per cent last month, accelerating from the 0.5 per cent drop a month earlier, the SRPI data showed.

Mr Ku Swee Yong, Chief Executive of property agency Century 21, said: “Shoeboxes may be tough to resell because prospective buyers may not be comfortable with the actual space and layout they see in the unit, as compared to a new sale when they buy purely on what they see in the show flat.”

Excluding shoeboxes, prices of homes in the non-central region declined 0.2 per cent, reversing from the 0.2 per cent rise a month earlier, the SRPI data showed, while those of homes in the central region fell 0.6 per cent, moderating from the 1 per cent decline previously.