Singapore Home Prices Grow at Slowest Pace in Almost Two Years
Singapore home prices climbed 0.7% in the March quarter compared to the previous three months, when they jumped 5%.
(Bloomberg) -- Singapore home prices grew at the slowest pace in almost two years as curbs on residential property at least temporarily reined in the nation’s surging real estate market.
Prices climbed 0.7% in the first quarter from the previous three months, when they jumped 5%, Urban Redevelopment Authority data showed Friday. While slightly higher than the preliminary estimate, it’s the slowest growth rate since the second quarter of 2020 when prices grew by 0.3%.
The sudden slowdown comes on the back of property curbs imposed in December to temper the housing market and higher property taxes. Those measures came as prices jumped at the highest pace in over a decade in 2021. The city-state joins some of Asia-Pacific’s most expensive housing markets that are starting to cool after last year’s breakneck growth.
In a move that may give pause to property hunters, some foreign banks in Singapore have suspended fixed-rate home loan packages that could be prompted in part by rising interest rates making such deals less attractive for lenders, the nation’s Business Times reported.
Singapore’s residential housing market has seen prices and demand rising even when the country recorded its worst recession. Sales have already rebounded in March after a subdued start to the year. And demand could hold up since there is appetite for new homes, especially among dwellers looking to upgrade from public to private units.
Though the rate of price growth may not escalate to the point it did in 2021, it may continue to inch up in the long term given the low supply of new housing stock, rising inflation and higher costs of construction and land prices, said Nicholas Mak, the Singapore-based head of research at APAC Realty Ltd. unit ERA.
“The property curbs may cool the market in the short term but not so much in the long haul,” Mak said.
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