Singapore’s housing market continues to heat up despite a challenging macroeconomic landscape, with a spike in demand for suburban housing helping to drive up private home prices at a faster-than-estimated 3.8 percent in the third quarter.
A final report released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that an index tracking sale of non-subsidised housing in Southeast Asia’s most expensive city rose to 187.8 in the three months ending 30 September from 180.9 in the April through June period. The market tracker showed a steeper rate of change than the 3.4 percent growth indicated in flash estimates issued by the URA earlier this month.
Last quarter’s pace quickened from the 3.5 percent jump in prices for luxury condos, landed homes, and other private housing witnessed over the previous three-month period, as prices for suburban dwellings rose at their fastest pace since the waning days of the global financial crisis in late 2009. Despite the third-quarter leap, however, analysts expect the market to slow down for the remainder of 2022.
The latest figures marked the 10th straight quarter of growth for private home prices in Singapore, with the price index jumping 13.6 percent from September 2021 through the end of last month.
By region, condo prices in the suburbs, or what the URA refers to as the outside central region (OCR), rose most quickly at 7.5 percent last quarter – faster than its 2.1 percent uptick in the preceding three months. Rising housing costs in the region were mainly attributed to robust sales from three projects launched during the period, led by a joint venture of UOL, Singapore Land, and Kheng Leong selling out 98 percent of the units in its AMO Residence project in Ang Mo Kio in its July launch.
Prices in city-fringe locations referred to as the Rest of Central Region (RCR) rose at a softer 2.3 percent increase last quarter, slowing markedly from the 6.4 percent pace in the second quarter. For the prime residential locations in the city centre, known as the CCR, price growth inched up by 2.3 percent in the July to September period versus the 1.9 percent increase seen from April through June.