In the second quarter of this year, the prices for HDB resale flats and private residential properties rose at a faster pace than the first quarter, according to flash estimates from the Housing and Development Board HDB and Urban Redevelopment Authority URA on Friday.
The estimates showed that the resale price index, which provides information on the general price movements in the resale public housing market, rose from 159.5 to 163.7.
Private home prices rose 3.2 per cent in the second quarter, almost five times more than the 0.7 per cent increase in the first quarter.
The continued price growth in the HDB resale market is not a surprise, as buyers confidence has improved significantly despite the economy reopening, according to analysts.
Our economy is almost fully reopened and growth has picked up faster than in many other countries, said Christine Sun, OrangeTee Tie's senior vice president of research and analytics.
She added that the public housing market is less susceptible to macroeconomic fluctuations and that critical drivers such as Singapore's employment rate and income growth remain healthy, keeping demand stable.
As Build-to- Order BTO construction delays persist, first-time buyers who are unwilling to wait out long completion times are turning to the secondary market, said Dr Tan Tee Khoon, Country Manager, PropertyGuru Singapore.
Some buyers are chasing after a limited supply of 5 room and larger flats in the resale market, said Lee Sze Teck, senior director of research at Huttons' Asia.
He said that this has pushed up the prices of such flats and caused more to cross the million-dollar price in the second quarter.
As of 2 Q 2022, there are an estimated 165 million dollar flat transactions. This is more than 60 per cent of the million-dollar flat transactions of 2021. In 2022, there could be more than 300 million dollar flats, said Lee.