Singapore condo resale prices rise 0.5% in December

This is the fifth consecutive month of price growth.

Condo resale prices in Singapore rose marginally from November to December, despite a 10% month-on-month decline in resale volume. 

The SRX reported that condo resale prices were up by 0.5% MOM in December, and climbed by 7.5% on a year-on-year basis when compared against December 2022. This marks the fifth straight month of price growth for the resale condo segment.

According to Wong Siew Ying, Head of Research and Content, PropNex, looking the caveats lodged, it appears that median transacted unit prices have somewhat stabilised in the last three months, with the CCR resale condo median price trending at around the $2,100-psf level, and the RCR and OCR median resale prices hovering at around the $1,760-psf and $1,440-psf mark (see Table 1). At these levels, resale condo prices are still substantially more affordable than new launches and we expect the more budget conscious buyers to continue to look at the resale market.

Here’s more from PropNex:

The SRX said that an estimated 743 condos were resold in December 2023, representing a 10.4% decline from November, but the resale volume was up by about 7% YOY from December 2022. We think the dip in sales in December 2023 is mainly due to the seasonal lull, which could still affect January’s tally as some buyers may bide their time in returning to the market.

Meanwhile, the volume of resale condo transactions to foreign buyers continues to be subdued, following the tightening of the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) rates in April 2023. In December 2023, foreigners (non-PR) accounted for 1.2% of the non-landed private resale transactions – relatively in line with the last few months (see Table 2a). 

In absolute terms, there were eight resale transactions to foreign buyers in December – of whom seven are from the US, and one from China. The proportion of non-landed resale transactions to Singaporean buyers rose again in December to 82.9% from 80.6% in the previous month.

For the whole of 2023, foreigners (non-PR) made up just 2.9% (or 288 transactions) of the overall non-landed resale private home sales – the lowest proportion on record since 1995, according to caveat data. In our view, the 60% ABSD rate for foreigners on residential property purchase has effectively curb investment demand from this group of buyers.