Private condo resale prices dropped 6% in January

Total units resold crashed 52.7% to 529 units.

Resale prices of private condominium slipped 0.3% MoM in January compared to rates in December, SRX Property revealed. Condo resale prices in the core central region saw the steepest decline of 1.8%.

Condo resale prices in the rest of the central region (RCR) also dipped 0.6% whilst condo resale prices outside the central region (OCR) hiked 0.5%, the firm noted.

"The slower sales in January could be attributed to the growing geopolitical uncertainties, rising interest rates and property cooling measures," OrangeTee & Tie head of research and consultancy Christine Sun commented. "Some potential buyers may have traveled overseas due to the longer weekend break during this year's Lunar New Year celebration."

On a YoY basis, condo resale prices in January dropped 6% and were down by 1.6% from their peak rates in July 2018, SRX Property noted. Resale price hikes were the highest in the OCR (6.5%), followed by RCR (6.4%), and CCR (4.5%).

Also read: Home sales dropped 10.6% to 21,657 units in 2018

In total, January saw 529 condo resold which is a 1.1% decrease from the 535 units resold in December. The total number of units resold was reduced by more than half (52.7%) compared to the 1,118 units resold in January 2018.

"The private resale market may continue to experience weakness due to stiffer competition from more than 60 new developments slated to be launched this year," Sun noted.