Daily Briefing: Could property cooling measures be permanent?; HDB resale prices up 0.1% in Q2

And private home prices down for 11th straight quarter.

Unless residential property prices plunge dramatically, the government may not lift the cooling measures, reported Singapore Business Review citing a Maybank Kim Eng report.

“Singapore households have $840 billion of capital, or 209 percent of GDP tied up in residential property. This has resulted in lower disposable income, which has impeded consumer spending and muzzled entrepreneurship,” the report said. Read more here.

Prices of resale HDB flats rose by 0.1 percent in Q2 2016 from the previous three-month period, according to latest flash estimates of the Housing Board’s resale price index (RPI). This reverses the 0.1 percent fall in the RPI during Q1 2016 from the quarter before. Find out more here.

Prices of private residential properties fell 0.4 percent in Q2 2016, compared to the 0.7 percent decline recorded during the previous quarter, according to latest flash estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). This represents the 11th consecutive quarter of price falls, the longest losing streak on record. Read more here.