Resale home prices edged up 2.7% in February

But CCR units dropped 4.7%.

According to SRX, prices of resale, non-landed private residential units increased 2.7% in February 2013 when compared with January 2013.

Rest of Central Region (RCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR) gained 3.5% and 5.1% in February (over the previous month) to reach an average PSF of $1,272 and $1,046 respectively.

In contrast, Core Central Region (CCR) saw a decline of 4.7% month-on-month to reach an average PSF of $1,788.

Besides RCR and OCR prices hitting a new historical high, OCR's average price also broke through a psychological level (of resistance) of $1,000 psf for the first time.

Despite price gains, resale volume during the Chinese New Year (CNY) month of Feb 2013 fell by more than 50% compared to Jan 2013. According to flash figures, there were only 325 resale transactions in Feb. However, February 2013 (CNY) outperformed January 2012 (CNY) by 325 the 309 resales.

Rental prices for non-landed private residential in Feb 2013 dropped by 1.3% compared with Jan.

Rental prices softened across all three regions, with RCR seeing the sharpest 1.9% drop. OCR and CCR followed suit with 1.6% and 0.4% dips respectively.

Overall rental yields saw a 0.1% drop from Jan, due to continuous overall capital value growth and softening in rental prices. CCR was the only region to register a positive growth in rental yield of 0.1%, which results from a big slide in resale prices. RCR and OCR both saw drops of 0.2% in gross yields.