With city centre homes leading the way, resale home prices seemed to be walking down the same path as the month before, with a dip of 1.7 per cent. Suburban homes’ decline was slightly less steep at 1.1 per cent and across the board, resale homes saw a 0.2 per cent drop in prices. On the bright side, city fringe properties did fairly well, with a 1.5 per cent gain.
The number of transactions were part of the reason for the drop. In January, only 282 private properties were sold, down from 363 in December last year. Other reasons include the loan restrictions and overall lower buying sentiments. With the festive season coming up in a couple of weeks’ time, the numbers for February may not see a drastic pick-up, but from March onwards, the figures will be telling of the year’s property market prospects.
As the year goes on, industry experts are expecting buyers to pick up on the softening home prices and keep a quick eye out for serious sellers who may have potentially value-worthy offers. There are sellers out there who are still holding on to their asking prices as they wait out 2015. The year could be a tussle between the these two groups. Any extreme asking prices on both ends will be unlikely to do anyone any favours.
Currently, areas with the highest resale home value (Measured by the amount buyers were overpaying or underpaying) of $60,000 are Watten Estate, Novena and Thomson. In Bukit Panjang and Choa Chu Kang, the prices were a negative $31,000.
A major shift in dynamics this year could be caused by the higher interest rates which are likely to happen this year. Buyers may take that into consideration, together with the tightened loan limits, which does not give them much leeway in negotiations. Sellers who are eager to make a sale will do well to consider these limitations as well and understand that it will not be easy for their buyers to easily fork out additional cash.
