URA private home price index up 0.8% in Q3; rents fall, vacancies rise

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said on Friday that its private home price index rose 0.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year over the preceding three months. This is identical to the flash estimate released earlier this month.

It follows the 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter gain in the index in Q2 2020.

The index is now up 0.65 per cent from a year ago.

Prices of landed homes increased by 3.7 per cent quarter on quarter in Q3, after remaining unchanged in the previous quarter.

Prices of non-landed homes inched up 0.1 per cent, after rising 0.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

Giving a breakdown by region, URA said that prices of non-landed homes in the prime areas or core central region (CCR) decreased by 3.8 per cent, contrasting with the 2.7 per cent increase in Q2.

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In the city fringe or rest of central region (RCR), prices rose 2.5 per cent, contrasting with the 1.7 per cent fall in the previous quarter.

In the suburbs or outside central region (OCR), prices rose 1.7 per cent after inching up 0.1 per cent in the previous quarter

URA said that private home rents fell 0.5 per cent quarter on quarter in Q3, a smaller decline compared with the 1.2 per cent decrease in the previous quarter.

Rents of landed properties dipped 0.1 per cent in Q3, a smaller drop than the 2.3 per cent decrease in the prior quarter.

Rents of non-landed properties eased 0.6 per cent, after declining 1.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

By region, rents of non-landed private homes in the CCR fell 2.1 per cent in Q3 2020, after dropping 0.6 per cent in Q2.

In the RCR, rents rose 0.3 per cent, contrasting with the 1.9 per cent decrease in Q2.

In the OCR, rentals increased 1 per cent, after slipping 0.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

Developers launched 3,791 uncompleted private housing units (excluding executive condominiums or ECs) for sale in Q3, compared with 1,852 units a quarter ago. ECs are a public-private housing hybrid.

They sold 3,517 private homes (excluding ECs) in Q3, double the 1,713 units sold in the previous quarter.

In the third quarter, developers did not launch any EC units for sale, but moved 164 EC units from earlier launches.

In the previous quarter, too, they did not launch any EC units but sold 71 EC units.

There were 3,467 resale transactions of private homes in Q3, about 3.7 times the 933 units transacted in the previous quarter. Resale transactions accounted for close to half (49.2 per cent) of all sale transactions in the latest quarter, up from the 35 per cent share in Q2.

As at the end of Q3, there was a total supply of 50,369 uncompleted private residential units (excluding ECs) in the pipeline with planning approvals, a slight increase from the 49,090 units in the previous quarter. Of this number, 26,483 units remained unsold as at the end of Q3, down from 27,977 units in the previous quarter.

After adding the supply of 4,104 EC units in the pipeline, there were 54,473 units in the pipeline with planning approvals. Of the EC units in the pipeline, 2,244 units remained unsold. In total, 28,727 units with planning approvals (including ECs) remained unsold, down from 29,876 units in the previous quarter.

Based on the expected completion dates reported by developers, 1,519 units (including ECs) are expected to be completed in Q4. Another 7,318 units (including ECs) are expected to be completed in 2021.

URA added that apart from the 28,727 unsold units (including ECs) with planning approval as at end-Q3, there is a potential supply of around 3,100 units (including ECs) from Government Land Sales (GLS) sites that have not been granted planning approval yet.

The stock of completed private residential units (excluding ECs) increased by 404 units in Q3, compared with the decrease of 173 units in the previous quarter.

The stock of occupied private homes (excluding ECs) fell 2,605 units in Q3, compared with the drop of 13 units in the previous quarter. As a result, the vacancy rate of completed private housing units (excluding ECs) rose to 6.2 per cent as at end-Q3, from 5.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

Vacancy rates of completed private residential properties as at the end of Q3 in the CCR, RCR and OCR were 9.2 per cent, 7.4 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, higher than the 7.5 per cent, 6.1 per cent and 4 per cent in the previous quarter.