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SINGAPORE – Housing Board resale apartment sales remained strong in August, while prices grew at the fastest monthly rate since February.
1.4 percent fewer HDB resale flats were sold in August compared to July, but this volume was 23.5 percent higher than in the same month last year.
In total, there were 2,435 HDB resale transactions in August, flash estimates from real estate portal SRX showed on Thursday (September 3).
Of the HDB apartments sold last month, 40.3% were four-bedroom apartments, 26% were five-bedroom apartments, 23.2% were three-bedroom apartments, and 8.8% were executive apartments. The rest of the transactions involved multi-generational and two-bedroom flats.
OrangeTee & Tie’s director of research and consulting, Christine Sun, said that the HDB resale market remained strong last month despite the Hungry Ghost Festival from August 19 to September 16, which generally features lower activity of sales.
“The strong sales volume of the past three months is not likely to be a ‘bump’ after the switch period,” he said.
“Market sentiment could be slowly recovering as the virus outbreak is stabilizing in Singapore and some sectors are beginning to experience a business turn after the period of interruption.”
SRX data showed a 0.7 percent increase in resale prices for August compared to July.
Last month’s resale prices were 2.1% higher than the same month last year, but 12.1% lower than HDB’s peak resale prices in April 2013.
The prices of immature farms increased 3.3 percent year-on-year, while those of mature farms increased 0.2 percent.
ERA Realty’s head of research and consulting, Nicholas Mak, said the rise in HDB’s resale price index in August represented the highest monthly growth rate since February.
“The growth in the price index was contributed by the HDB apartment resale transactions that recently completed the five-year minimum occupancy period.
“These newer flats would normally be priced higher than the older flats in the vicinity,” he said.
A five-bedroom condo at Pinnacle @ Duxton posted the highest transaction price for a resale condo in August at $ 1,185,000. It was one of five HDB resale floors that sold for at least $ 1 million that month.
An executive duplex in Hougang sold for $ 890,000 at what was the highest resale price for immature properties.
SRX data also showed that the overall median transaction on value X (TOX) was $ 3,000 positive in August, an increase of $ 2,000 compared to July.
The TOX median measures whether people are overpaying (in the case of positive TOX) or underpaying (when there is negative TOX) relative to the SRX Property X estimated market value for apartments.
Flats in Bukit Batok posted the highest average TOX with a positive $ 10,500, while those in Kallang / Whampoa posted the lowest average TOX with a negative $ 4,000.
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