Singapore property vendors' optimism highest since 2015

This led to a 4% rise in asking prices in the central business district.

Property sellers' sentiment has been the most positive since 2015 as the PropertyGuru Property Index rose 3.2% from 94 in Q2 to 97.1 in Q3.

This implies that current sellers have already shifted their selling price upwards, a practice known as future-pricing, aligned with the general expectation for transaction price recovery to begin in 2018 following the recent en bloc fever and growing confidence amongst real estate developers, PropertyGuru said.

The CBD area and its surrounding residential zones saw the highest increase in asking prices at 4%.

This was followed by the suburban regions in Northern Singapore, composed of districts 25 to 28, and Western Singapore, with districts 22 to 24, which saw asking prices grow by 2.5% and 2.2%, respectively.

However, property supply saw a decline of 4.5% QoQ in Q3 2017, a result of the anticipation of a stronger price recovery in 2018.

"The dip is indicative that real estate developers have begun to delay launches, and individual sellers in the secondary market are holding back from putting their properties up for sale," PropertyGuru said.

"While recent absorption of new launch stock in the market fuels seller optimism and accounts for the growth in seller asking prices, the decline in listings is reflective of sellers’ optimism for 2018 as they refrain from entering the market now," they added.