HDB resale volume rose 4.6% to 23,099 units in 2018

Punggol recorded the highest sales volume of standard flats at 47%.

Demand for Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats remained resilient in 2018 with total resale volume edging up 4.6% YoY to 23,099 units, according to OrangeTee & Tie’s HDB Market Pulse Q4 2018 report.

Tampines, Bedok and Ang Mo Kio in the mature estates and Jurong West, Yishun and Woodlands in the non-mature estates were found to have the most transactions in 2018. Sales volume of standard flats rose highest in Punggol at 47%, followed by Sengkang at 23%.

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“These numbers are poised to rise further as more than 6,000 and 4,000 flats will be reaching their minimum occupation period (MOP) in 2019 in Sengkang and Punggol, respectively,” the report’s authors noted. “With more than 26,000 HDB flats reaching their MOP, new resale and rental hotspots could emerge this year.”

As the more mature estates of Bukit Merah, Queenstown and Ang Mo Kio are set to see almost 4,000 HDB resale flats hitting MOP, Singapore could easily bear witness to more flats being sold over $700,000 in 2019.

In terms of price tags, prices continued to weaken QoQ as the HDB resale price index dipped 0.2% in Q4 2018, extending the downward trend seen in Q3. Prices hovered between -0.2-0.1% per quarter from Q2 to Q4 2018, which the report’s authors said indicated stabilisation.

Also read: HDB resale prices dropped 1.1% in January

The overall 0.9% price decrease in 2018 was not deemed as significant compared to the 1.5% decline in 2017 as more transactions of newer flats were snatched at good prices, the report outlined.

In terms of rentals, the number of approved applications to rent out HDB flats rose 2.3% to 11,479 in Q4 2018. YoY, the number of approved applications inched up 1.8%.

“We estimate that between 22,000 and 23,000 HDB resale flats could be transacted this year, whilst the number of HDB leases could hover between 55,000-56,000 flats,” the report’s authors commented. “We estimate that the island-wise resale price may continue to fall but at a slower pace of between 1-2%, whilst rents may dip 1-3% for the whole of 2019.”