Real estate markets in Singapore continue to recover, backed by rising demand amongst investors and buyers alike. Private residential home prices continued their rise in the second quarter of the year and this was the 4th consecutive quarter where prices increased and so did overall residential transaction volumes. However, price growth should be on the lower side for the remainder of 2018 on account of several cooling measures implemented by the authorities. The increase in prices by 3.4% for the current quarter has already been confirmed and follows an increase of 3.9% in the first quarter as well.
As a result, for H1 2018, private home prices increased by a handsome 7.4% according to reports. All market segments witnessed growth in prices for the second quarter. There was growth of 4.1% in prices of landed properties as compared to a rise of 1.9% in the earlier quarter. Prices went up by 3.2% for non-landed properties as compared to a rise of 4.4% in the earlier quarter. Non-landed properties in the RCR (rest of central region) had prices going up by 5.6% as compared to 1.2% in the previous quarter. Those in the CCR (core central region) increased by 0.9% as compared to 5.5% in the last quarter before this. Prices of non-landed properties in the OCR (outside central region) went up by 3% in the second quarter as compared to an increase of 5.6% in the first quarter.
Overall residential real estate transactions improved by 34.9% to stand at 7, 186 units for the second quarter of 2018 which is the highest threshold ever since Q1 2013 when 7, 811 units were sold in the market. Resale transactions took up 65% of all private housing units sold in Q2 2018 or 4, 700 units. New home sales volumes stood at 2, 366 units. Overall, for H1 2018, 12, 514 units were sold in the Singapore residential real estate market.
