Don't be fooled by the record high property prices in Jan-Sept

It is still less pronounced than the 5.6% gained in the same period last year.

According to Colliers International Director of Research & Advisory Ms Chia Siew Chuin (谢岫君), URA’s flash estimate for 3Q 2012 shows overall private home prices continued to climb, inching up 0.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), marginally faster than the 0.4% QoQ increase in the previous quarter.

Ms Chia said:

This has culminated in a 0.9% increase in the first three quarters of 2012. While property prices have reached yet another new high, the increase in the January-to-September period is less pronounced than the 5.6% gained in the same period last year.

The islandwide increase is supported by price growths of non-landed homes in all three market segments although the pace of increase varied across the different segments. Prices in the Outside Central Region (OCR) increased the most, rising 1.0% QoQ, followed by gains of 0.7% in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and 0.2% in the Core Central Region (CCR).

Developers continued with project launches in 3Q 2012, stepping up momentum for mid- to higher-tier homes in the CCR and RCR to capitalise on positive home-buying sentiments in these regions, as a result of the narrowing of price gap between new mass-market homes and completed higher-tier properties.

Overall, developers’ current pricing strategy can be described as competitive – either similar to current market prices or marginally higher than competitors. Nonetheless, this pricing strategy appears to be effective, as it has been relatively successful in drawing buyers out of the sideline.

The marginal price growths registered in 3Q 2012 and the recent quarters are evidence that although developers may not be able to take on an aggressive pricing strategy compared to one to two years ago – a result of increasing price resistance from homebuyers, neither do they need to resort to a price-to-sell strategy to move sales.

Following from this, although the recent announcement of the third round of quantitative easing (QE3) by the US Federal Reserve is likely to give buyer sentiment a temporary shot in the arm, there is likely to be little risk of any asset bubble building up in Singapore’s residential property market.