Dead weight: Sluggish private home sales drag down 1Q14 real estate growth

Prices slip for the first time since 2009.

The real estate segment saw a moderation in growth for the first quarter of 2014, thanks mostly to a drastic decline in private residential sales.

According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Economic Survey of Singapore for 1Q14, private home sales contracted by 65 per cent yoy in the first quarter, the fifth consecutive quarter of decline.

“In line with weak sales, private residential property prices fell by 0.8 per cent, the first decline since the third quarter of 2009,” the report noted.

Here’s more from the MTI:

For the private retail space segment, occupancy rates eased slightly to 94 per cent from 95 per cent in the previous quarter. At the same time, retail rentals remained unchanged from the previous quarter.

By contrast, rentals in the office space segment rose by 3.9 per cent in the first quarter, while occupancy rates remained the same as the previous quarter’s, at 89 per cent.

Similarly, in the industrial space market, rentals of private multiple-user factory space increased by 4.5 per cent, while occupancy rates remained largely unchanged at 87 per cent.