Quite distinct from the figures of September, October 2019 witnessed a rapid escalation in the number of resales conducted of the Housing Board Flats; this improvement can be solely attributed to the higher grants and stretching of income windows for the first time since the last month. As per the reports submitted by the real estate portal under SRX Property, a total of 2,213 HBD resale flats altered their ownership; this implies the fact that there has been an 18% increase when compared to the statistics of September. Furthermore, if this year’s figures are placed alongside last year’s, one would find that the resale volume has grown by 10.6%. One possible source of this change could be the alterations brought into action recently in the market policies.
In September, the Government waived off the restrictions that were previously placed over the owner’ choice of the flat’s location and type; in a general address meant for public welfare, the authorities confirmed that first-time buyers can avail up to $80,000 under the laws of Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG) disregarding the stages of ownership that the flat has undergone. The capitalization of this grant has been rapid; since last year’s April, the net increment has amounted to 21% more than the standard 12-month average. Out of the variants sold, 40.8% of them were four-room flats, 24.35 were five room-flats while 25.4% and 7.5% belonged to three-room flats and executive flats and multi-generation flats, leaving out the remaining portion for two-room flats.
The resale prices in the last month dropped by 0.2% than September’s figures but were still more than the last year’s digits. Additionally, the cost of non-mature estates kept surging by 1.1% every year but, the price of mature flats dropped by 1.3%. If we consider the records, the most expensive resale flat that was granted to new owners was a part of The Pinnacle’s at Duxton and was a five-room flat. In the case of the non-mature unit, an executive maisonette in Hougang was resold for $850,000. Relying upon the present status of sale, SRX has predicted that within the next three months, flats that have been certified with a five-year minimum occupation period will have at least 2,320 units sold.
People who bought the resale flats in the last month were asked to pay the estimated price that suffices the present economic trends, therefore, establishing that they have neither overpaid nor underpaid. This means that the total median transaction conducted over the X-value (TOX) was leveled at zero. The metrics used by TOX to calculate whether a customer is overpaying or underpaying is generated by computer-supported market value and the record stores the ongoing price and graph of districts that have crossed the threshold of 10 transactions.
The flats located in Serangoon had the highest median TOX steeped at a positive of $9,500, whereas the Queenstown assets looked lowest median TOX of $12,000. Coming to its subjective arena, the five-room flats and HDB executive saw a positive median TOX value of $6,000 when the three-room and four-room flats saw the negative TOX median of $1,000.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/higher-grants-drive-hdb-resale-market
