If reports are to be believed, the prices of Housing Board Resale flats surged by 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019 when compared with the preceding three months of the year and is considered to be the highest increase between quarters since the last year. However, it was stated that even though the configuration of the last quarter was impressive, it failed to modify the overall resale prices of the HDB throughout the entire year. This automatically implies that the prices of 2019 remained static as contrasted against the price drop of 0.9% in 2018 o0ver 2017.
Coming to the future of these flats, HDB is looking forward to releasing a total of about 16,000 to 17,000 units this year and they will be categorized under the Build-To-Order flats. Near about 3,000 descendants of these flats will be launched in Sembawang and Toa Payoh on the occasion of 2020’s first BTO exercise scheduled to be conducted in February itself. Additionally, 3,700 flats will be rolled out in Pasir Ris, Choa Chu Kang, Tampines and Tengah for sale comprehensively around May. Nevertheless, predictions suggest that the flats assigned for sale in Choa Chu Kang will witness a shorter waiting period as opposed to the other locations.
Christie Sun, the head of research in OrangeTee and Tie has asserted that one of the leading reasons that facilitated the stability of the flat prices stemmed from the changes that were recently injected in the policy including the Home Improvement Programme and the one which lets people loan some funds their Central Provident Fund to pay for their newly-bought properties. Market analytics say that this year too will be quiet busy and interesting for the HDB resale sector owing to the policy changes and as a decent portion of the flats would be attaining their minimum occupation period.
These two aspects will generously contribute towards raising the demand of the older flats and relate them as wiser recourses for owners targeting to recuperate their properties. Even if we keep aside the favorable flexibility of purchase, the number of potential home-buyers has also hiked with time due to the availability of housing grants in case of first-time buyers and the option of a higher income ceiling for all the eligible buyers alike. Forecasters are also prophesizing that the prices will probably either stay steady or grow up to 2% for the whole year.
Ismail Gafoor, the PropNex chief affirmed that in 2019, the prices of the HDB resale flats didn’t plunge for the first time since 2012 and therefore, this is being treated as a silver lining amidst the humdrum that has continued across the previous years. The prices are most likely to grow this year because close 25,000 flats will be shifting hands as a result of the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant. Nicholas Mak, the head of ERA Realty is looking positively at the prospects of the current year by at least 1.5 to 2.5%.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/hdb-resale-prices-rise-04-in-q4-but-unchanged-for-2019