Singapore residential market expected to recover this year

Singapore residential market expected to recover this year
Jan 4, 2010 - PropertyGuru.com.sg

2010 will see a recovery of the residential market in Singapore, said Chief Executive Lim Ee Seng of Frasers Centrepoint.

“We expected 2009 to be a very bad year for us but it turned out to be a good year,” said Managing Director Lim Yew Soon of EL Development.

Dr. Chua Yang Liang, Jones Lang LaSalle's head of South-east Asia research, agreed: “It's been a remarkable year - with transaction and pricing outperforming expectations, driven by latent demand, low interest rates and primed by lower pricing.”

Prices and sales of new private homes picked up significantly from April. It was a turnaround from Q1, when sellers were cutting prices just to offload their homes.

At the start of the year, as the private homes market swung hastily from hopelessness to 'unwarranted enthusiasm' by mid-2009, this year turned out to be a 'record-breaking' one, said Chua Chor Hoon, DTZ head of research for South-east Asia.

Record monthly and quarterly highs were achieved from sales and launches of new private homes, while some new launches outside the city area sold at record prices, Ms. Chua said.

Landed home resale located in prime districts also reach record prices, while home prices in resale mass market rebounded within two quarters to hit the 2007 peak levels, added Ms. Chua.