The skies seem brighter for Singapore’s private residential market which witnessed a surge in buyer interest as well as a hike in sales volume during the third quarter of 2020. URA data released on Fri showed that private home prices rose 0.8% q-o-q in Q3 2020, following a 0.3% rebound in the previous quarter. The price hike was mainly driven by RCR which increased 2.5% q-o-q, followed by OCR at 1.7%. “Prices were also boosted by the landed segment which saw a spike in demand and a price increase of 3.7% amid the health crisis,” said Christine Sun, Head of Research and Consultancy at OrangeTee and Tie. Excluding ECs, transaction volume for private homes spiked 164.5% to 7,047 units in Q3 2020 from 2,664 units in Q2 2020. Sun noted that investor exuberance for real estate properties appears “to have split over from the primary market to the secondary market”. Resale homes accounted for a larger proportion of total sales in Q3 2020. Meanwhile, with increasing unemployment among foreign workers stalled the rental price growth. The overall rental index declined 0.5% q-o-q and 1.7% y-o-y, while occupancy rates dropped to 93.8% in Q3 2020 from 94.6% in Q2 2020.... Continue Reading