Singapore Property Weekly Issue 202

8/9/2019 Singapore Property Weekly Issue 202

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Issue 202Copyright © 2011-2014 www.Propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

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CONTENTS

p2 6 Changes in the URA Property Price

Index and Why They Matter

p6 Singapore Property News This Week

p10 Resale Property Transactions

(March 18 – March 24 )

Welcome to the 202th edition of the

Singapore Property Weekly .

Hope you like it!

Mr. Propwise

FROM THE

EDITOR

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 202

Page | 2Back to Contents

By Property Soul (Guest Contributor)

If you have a good memory, you may recall

that I have wrote to The Straits Times Forum

in December last year with a letter titled

“Public deserves reliable, consistent data”. In

the URA’s reply, they mentioned they wereworking towards making improvements to the

property market data and would release the

net prices of individual units sold by

developers on their website in the first half of

2015.

On April Fool’s Day, the URA finally

announced the improved the computation

methodology of their PPI (Property Price

Index) to better reflect price changes

6 Changes in the URA Property Price Index and Why They Matter

http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/http://propertysoul.com/2014/12/26/uras-reply/


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in private residential market. This is first

reflected in the release of the flash estimate

for the 1st Quarter 2015.

6 changes in the new PPI According to URA’s press release on 1 April

2015, the long-awaited PPI revision (their last

revision was in 2000) covers six major

changes:

1. Property Attributes

Besides location, tenure, property type and

completion status, the PPI will now take into

consideration the property attributes (e.g.

size, age) and micro-location (e.g. proximity

to the MRT station).

2. Tracking Methodology

To account for differences in housing

characteristics, from now on, the PPI is

calculated based on the Stratified Hedonic

Regression Method instead of the previous

Stratification Method.

3. Weighted Average

The usual 12-quarter moving average weightsnow become 5-quarter fixed weights.

4. Base Year

The base period has been changed from

4Q1998 to 1Q2009.

5. Data Source

Apart from caveats lodged and new units sold

by developers, data sources now include

stamp duty transactions from the Inland

Revenue Authority of Singapore.

6. Price Indices

URA will show price trends on a broad rather

than micro or localized level. From 1st

Quarter 2015, only the following property

http://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspxhttp://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2015/apr/pr15-16.aspx


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price indices will be published:

- Residential Properties

- Landed Residential Properties

- Non-Landed Residential Properties

- Non-Landed Residential Properties in Core

Central Region, Rest of Central Region and

Outside Central Region

If one compares these PPIs with the previous

indices, sub-categories like completion status(completed vs uncompleted) and property

type (Apartment, Condominium, Detached,

Semi-detached and Terrace) have not been

mentioned. The picture will be clearer when

the full set of 1Q2015 price indices are out in

4 weeks’ time.

Implications behind the changes

What are the implications for the

improvement of URA’s PPI?

1. More comprehensive coverage and

higher representation

In the past, only data from the Singapore

Land Authority was accounted for, even

though lodging caveats with SLA is on a

voluntary basis. Furthermore, survey data on

new units sold for uncompleted projects rely

on honest contributions by property

developers.

Since buyers of all properties have to paybuyer stamp duty, it should theoretically be

possible to capture all private housing

transactions. The expanded data collection

source to cover stamp duty payments is

definitely more comprehensive.

2. More meaningful comparisons among

projects

Property prices of various projects, though in

the same district,


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can differ significantly depending on their

actual location, age of the property, etc. With

the addition of more property attributes like

micro-location and size or age of the

transacted unit, the public is able to make

more meaningful comparisons of the pricing

data.

3. Increased difficulty to compare with

past data

With the base period 4Q1998 shifted to1Q2009, and 12-quarter moving average

weights changed to 5-quarter fixed weights,

the PPI now puts more emphasis on price

comparisons for the last few years rather than

over the past decades.

With the changes in tracking methodology, it

is now increasingly difficult to make apple-to-

apple comparisons with the old set of PPI

data.

What’s next?

URA’s written reply to my letter dated Dec 23,2014had promised the release of the net

prices of individual units sold by developers in

the first half of next year. The public is looking

forward to see the actual transacted prices of

units bought directly from developers, less all

the stamp duty absorption, subsidies, rebatesand incentives offered.

By guest contributor Property Soul, a

successful property investor, blogger , and

author of the No B.S. Guide to Property

Investment.

http://propertysoul.com/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://propertysoul.com/


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Singapore Property This Week


Residential

G C B m e d i a n p r i c e i n c r e a s e b y 3 5 % f r o m

2010 to 2014

According to ERA Realty, the median psf

price of good class bungalows (GCB)

increased by 35 percent from $1,107 psf to$1,490 psf from 2010 to 2014. However, the

annual number of GCB transactions fell from

80 to 15 units. ERA said that GCB sellers are

generally not affected by market changes as

they are not under pressure to sell their

houses. Henry Lim from ERA added that thishas caused sellers to hold their properties

until prices reach their expectations. As such,

the supply of GCBs fell by 10 percent in the

last year. Yet, William Wong from RealStar

Premier Group said that he predicts homeprices will fall by another 2 to 3 percent by the

end of this year.

(Source: Business Times)

Feb’s c o n d o p r i c e s f e l l b y 0 . 3 % m o n t h - o n -

m o n t h

According to the National University of

Singapore Institute of Real Estate Studies,

the prices of completed private non-landed

homes have fallen by 0.3 percent in February

from January. This is a 5 percent drop in the

NUS Singapore Residential Price Index from

the same period in 2014. In February, the

sub-index for the central region fell by 0.7

month-on-month; while the sub-index for

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 202


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small units of up to 506 sq ft fell by 0.2

percent month-on-month during the same

period. Eugene Lim from ERA Realty believes

that there will be a 5 to 8 percent drop in

prices for the whole of this year. Ku SweeYong from Century21 added that developers

may have to cut prices in order to attract

buyers.


P ri v at e r es i d en t ia l p r o pe rt y p r ic e i n d ex r e vise d b y U R A

URA has revised its private residential

property price index (PPI) to include sales

data from stamp duty submissions to the tax

authority. The new PPI will cover all private

home transactions. According to the Business

Times, this new methodology will improve the

sensitivity of the index to market changes.

This methodology is also similar to that used

by HDB for the HDB resale price index. Under

the new method, transacted units are

grouped based on property types before price

change over time is computed. Fixed index

weights are assigned to these groups. Market

experts believe that the new method will allowthem to price properties better.


U RA : P ri vat e h o m e p ri ces f al l b y 1.1%

quarter-on-quarter

The revised PPI showed that there was a 1.1

percent quarter-on-quarter fall in prices in Q1

this year from Q4 2014. This is the 6th

consecutive quarter that prices have fallen.

Landed properties experienced a 1.1 percent

fall in prices in Q1 this year while non-landed

properties also experienced a 1.1 percent fall

in the same time period. The fall in prices was

more substantial in the Rest of Central

Region for non-landed residential properties

according to flash estimates according

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 202


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to flash estimates by URA as prices fell 1.8

percent quarter-on-quarter for in Q1 this year.

Non-landed homes in the Outside of Central

Region experienced a 0.9 percent fall while

those in the Core Central Region saw a 0.6percent fall in the same time period. Ong Teck

Hui from JLL believes that prices may fall by

1 to 2 percent each quarter in 2015. Sellers

who are pressured into selling may cut prices

even further, Ong added. Eugene Lim from

ERA Realty agrees with Ong and predictedthat there will be a 5 to 8 percent fall in prices

for the whole year.


Q 1 H D B r e s a l e p r i c e s f e l l b y 1 % q u a r t e r -

o n - q u a r t e r

HDB resale prices have fallen by 1% in Q1

2015 from the preceding quarter, according to

HDB. According to Nicholas Mak from SLP

International, the resale price index in the last

7 quarters has fallen by a total of 9.2 percent.

Nonetheless, the fall in the price index in Q1

this year is the smallest in the last 1.5 years,

said Mak. However, Mak believes that the fall

in prices will continue unless coolingmeasures are lifted. Not only so, the increase

in BTO and Sale of Balance Flat supplies has

negatively impacted the resale market. Mak

predicts that HDB resale prices will fall by 4 to

6 percent this year, and Ismail Gafoor from

PropNex estimates that the HDB resalevolumes will range from 19,000 to 20,000

units this year.


U R A : U n ev e n p r i c e f a l l s f o r c o n d o s

10 out of 46 condo projects saw double-digit

declines in median prices this year, compared

to prices in 2013, according to a study by

URA on private non-landed home prices.

However, only 2 projects in the city centre



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saw price declines of over 20 percent this

year. According to the URA study, the large

price falls appears to be confined to a few

projects. Particularly, ultra-luxury condos saw

a 12.4 percent fall in average prices in thelast year according to a study by Knight

Frank. Higher price properties saw a greater

fall in prices because of the weak market

sentiments and the increase in supply of

completed units for certain types of condos,

said Alice Tan from Knight Frank.


Commercial

S u b l e tt i n g o f i n d u s t r i al l a n d i s b a n n e d

To ensure that Singapore’s industrial landspaces are used more productively, HDB has

revised its subletting policy in line with JTC

Corporation’s policy. Currently, tenants of

HDB industrial properties can lease out up to

50 percent of their factory floor space.

However, new and existing tenants of HDB

industrial properties will not be allowed to

sublet their units from June 1 onward. The

maximum allowable sublet quantum for other end-user lessees and third-party facility

providers have also been cut from 50 to 30

percent of the gross floor area. Tenants with

existing approved subletting arrangements

will be allowed to renew their subletting

agreements up to Dec 31, 2017. NicholasMak from SLP International said that due to

the policy changes, subtenants may have to

relocate. This may marginally increase

occupancy levels in the private industrial

market. However, the changes may mean

that industrial tenants may have less flexibilityto rescale their space, said Chia Siew Chuin

from Colliers.




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Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of Mar 18 – Mar 24

NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale propertytransactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchasersigns an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

1 MARINA BAY SUITES 2,056 4,680,000 2,276 99

1 PEOPLE'S PARK COMPLEX 1,119 880,000 786 993 RIVER PLACE 1,722 2,120,000 1,231 99

5 THE PARC CONDOMINIUM 1,518 2,000,000 1,318 FH

5 MONTEREY PARK CONDOMINIUM 1,302 1,480,000 1,136 999

5 PALM GREEN 1,098 1,035,000 943 FH

7 BURLINGTON SQUARE 1,119 1,439,000 1,285 99

8 CITIGATE RESIDENCE 570 755,000 1,323 FH

9 THE LAURELS 1,302 3,150,150 2,419 FH

9 THE TRILLIUM 1,399 2,660,000 1,901 FH

10 STEVEN'S COURT 2,863 3,500,000 1,222 FH

10 JERVOIS MEADOWS 2,024 2,000,000 988 FH

10 DUCHESS CREST 1,345 1,758,000 1,307 99

11 PARK INFINIA AT WEE NAM 1,464 2,855,000 1,950 FH

11 PARK INFINIA AT WEE NAM 1,442 2,700,000 1,872 FH

11 ADAM PARK CONDOMINIUM 1,216 1,550,000 1 ,274 FH

14 SIMS GREEN 958 855,000 892 99

15 PEBBLE BAY 2,217 3,200,000 1,443 99

15 ONE AMBER 1,701 2,380,000 1,399 FH

15 THE BELVEDERE 1,238 1,820,000 1,470 FH

15 LAGUNA PARK 1,615 1,380,000 855 99

15 SANCTUARY GREEN 1,152 1,360,000 1,181 99

15 VILLA MARINA 1,249 1,280,000 1,025 99

15 MANDARIN GARDEN CONDOMINIUM 1,001 1,080,000 1,079 99

15 MOUNTBATTEN SUITES 441 690,000 1,563 FH

16 RICH EAST GARDEN 2,411 2,250,000 933 FH

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

16 OPTIMA @ TANAH MERAH 2,271 1,910,000 841 99

16 EAST MEADOWS 1,206 1,100,000 912 9917 EDELWEISS PARK CONDOMINIUM 3,197 2,000,000 626 FH

17 ESTELLA GARDENS 1,292 1,088,888 843 FH

18 OASIS @ ELIAS 980 888,000 907 99

19 EVERGREEN PARK 1,076 880,000 818 99

20 THE GARDENS AT BISHAN 1,572 1,460,000 929 99

20 CENTRO RESIDENCES 818 1,228,000 1,501 99

21 THE RAINTREE 1,292 1,250,000 968 99

23 PARK NATURA 1,744 1,900,000 1,090 FH

23 TREE HOUSE 1,561 1,720,000 1,102 99

23 HILLVIEW HEIGHTS 1,668 1,580,000 947 FH

23 HILLVISTA 1,292 1,535,000 1,188 FH

23 CASHEW HEIGHTS CONDOMINIUM 1,658 1,480,000 893 999

23 HILLVIEW REGENCY 1,109 970,000 875 99

23 REGENT GROVE 1,259 928,000 737 99

23 REGENT HEIGHTS 1,023 820,000 802 99

26 BULLION PARK 807 798,000 988 FH

27 SUN PLAZA 1,345 1,048,000 779 99

27 EUPHONY GARDENS 1,184 823,000 695 9 9



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Singapore Property Weekly Issue 202