HDB rental volume dropped 13.7% to 1,118 units in February

It wasn't a good month for HDBs.

According to SRX HDB Flash Report, the overall HDB Cash-Over-Valuation (COV) dropped from $3,000 in January 2014 to zero in Feb 2014. This is the first time COV hit zero since 2006 when SRX began collecting COV records.

Twelve out of 26 HDB Towns saw zero or negative median COV.

Here's more from SRX:

This is an increase from seven HDB towns in January that saw zero or negative COV. Bukit Panjang, Punggol, Sembawang, Sengkang and Woodlands led the drop with negative overall median COVs recorded in Feb. Bedok, Bukit Batok, Chao Chu Kang, Geylang, Jurong West, Tampines and Yishun recorded zero overall median COV.

Almost four in ten HDB deals closed below valuation. According to transaction records from srx.com.sg agencies, 37.3% of HDB resale deals were closed below valuation in February. This represents a 7.9 percentage point increase from 29.4% of negative COVs in Jan.

Overall, HDB resale prices fell 1.8% in February. This is the sharpest month-on-month fall since prices started declining in April 2013. With the latest decline, HDB prices now are at the same levels as 20 months ago in Jun 2012.

According to flash estimates, 734 HDB flats were sold in February's resale market, a 20.0% month-on-month drop from Jan 2014's 918 units. On a year-on-year basis, February's resale volume posted a smaller 6.3% drop from 783 flats sold over the same month of last year.

Rental volume dropped 13.7% y-o-y. An estimated 1,118 HDB flats were rented in February 2014, 25.3% less than Jan's 1,496 rental transactions. On a year-on-year basis, February's rental volume posted a 11.9% drop from 1,296 flats leased over the same month of last year.