Price increase in OCR driven by new home sales: property experts

Private home sales prices rose 3.4% in the latest flash sales.

After the recent price increase in the Outside Central Region (OCR), property analysts said this was driven by the demand in new home sales.

In the recent flash estimates, Urban Redevelopment Authority sees the growth of private residential prices to slightly moderate in Q3, rising by 3.4% YoY. Overall prices increased 7.8%, being the suburbs or OCR with the highest price rose, said OrangeTee.

“This is the steepest quarterly increase since Q3 2009 at 16.1%. Non-landed homes in the prime districts, or Core Central Region (CCR), rose by 2.3% q-o-q while the city fringe, or Rest of Central Region (RCR), increased by 2.5%,” said OrangeTee, in its report.

One Global Group Senior Analyst for Research Mohan Sandrasegeran said prices rose in the OCR due to the new sales in suburbs such as the Amo Residence, Lentor Modern, and SkyEden@Bedko.

“Home buyers and investors knowing the significance of these launches due to lack of options in the OCR segment were attracted by the development’s advantageous locations,” said Mohan.

Cooling measures in but market will stay resilient

PropNex said the fresh cooling measures , which were imposed to cool down the property market, will ensure that prices are stabilised.

“However, we are not anticipating a sharp downward correction in prices as developers do not have that much room to reduce price, in view of the higher construction cost, the high land cost for some sites and also seeing that many of them have relatively low unsold inventory,” said PropNex,

Overall, the property expert sees that demand for homes will stay resilient.

“Looking ahead, the factors that will support housing demand include the recovery in foreign employment levels as more expatriates return to Singapore after the easing of travel restrictions, the welcoming of new citizens and permanent residents, as well as family formation,” said PropNex.