ST : Home prices up 1.8%

Jan 22, 2010
Home prices up 1.8%

By Jessica Cheam



Private home prices shot up by 7.4 per cent in last three months of 2009 as the property market made a quick recovery from a nightmarish start to the year. --ST PHOTO: AZIZ HUSSIN

PRIVATE home prices shot up by 7.4 per cent in last three months of 2009 as the property market made a quick recovery from a nightmarish start to the year.

This followed the previous quarter's increase of 15.8 per cent - a turnaround from a contraction of 18 per cent in the first half of 2009.

Official data by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released on Friday showed prices of private residential properties for 2009 as a whole increased by 1.8 per cent.

Prices of non-landed properties rose d by 7.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with the 15.9 per cent increase in the previous quarter. Private apartment prices fetched 9.7 per cent more, while prices of condominiums were up by 6.1 per cent. Prices of non-landed properties in Core Central Region1 (CCR) went up by 7.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, while those in Rest of Central Region2 (RCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR) increased by 9.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.

For 2009, prices of non-landed properties in CCR decreased by 1.8 per cent, while those in RCR and OCR increased by 3 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively. For the fourth quarter, office, shop and industrial properties increased by 1 per centm 0.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.

The URA said as at fourth quarter 2009, there were 60,476 private residential units in the pipeline, comprising supply from projects that were already under construction and those that had been granted planning approval but were not under construction yet.