Chart of the Day: Private home prices on a nosedive for the 4th straight quarter

As high-end home prices fall for sixth consecutive quarter.

Private home prices in Singapore fell for the fourth straight quarter as the government steps since 2009-2013 to cool the real estate market, especially the TDSR, continued to take effect.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s flash estimates, the private residential property price index fell 1.3 points to 208.1 in 3Q14, down 0.6% q/q and -3.8% y/y. This is the fourth straight decline, albeit a slight slowdown, after 1% q/q decline in 2Q14, 1.3% q/q decline in 1Q14 and -0.9% q/q in 4Q13. Private home prices are still 56% above the last trough in 2009. 

According to Barclays, in the Core Central Region (CCR), which usually represents high-end homes, prices fell 0.9% after declining 1.5% in the 2Q14. This is the sixth consecutive quarter of price declines in this segment, bringing the total decline of CCR prices to 5.8% since the peak in 1Q13. 

The price decline of suburban homes – proxied by the Outside Central Region (OCR) –  decelerated for the fourth consecutive quarter, by -0.2%, compared with the 0.9% decrease  in the previous quarter. This brings cumulative price decline for OCR homes to just 2.1%. In  the Rest of Central Region (RCR), mid-end home prices fell 0.1%, compared with the 0.4%  decrease in the previous quarter, which brings cumulative decline for RCR homes to 4.3%  from the peak. Prices of landed private residential properties fell another 1.7% for the fourth  consecutive quarter, identical to the decline in 2Q14. This brings the cumulative decline for landed homes to 5.0% since the peak in 3Q13.