SINGAPORE: The Singapore Real Estate Exchange said resale prices of public housing units built by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) fell by 0. 4 per cent month on month in December, hitting a 41 month low, this means that the prices are now at their lowest since August 2011.
Some of the flats saw price declines, while the prices for executive flats saw an increase of 1.8 percent. Overall, prices have declined 6.1 per cent from the same period a year ago and 10 per cent from the peak in April 2013, it said.
The exchange said that the price drop was mainly driven by the non mature estates, which saw resale prices decline 0.9 per cent last month. However, prices in mature estates increased 0.2 per cent compared with the previous month.
Singapore government significantly ramped up supplies of public housing units between 2011 and 2013 in a bid to tame the rising property prices. It also put in place several rounds of cooling measures since the prices started to rebound in 2009.
The market for apartments and other types of properties developed by private developers are typically more expensive and account for a smaller part of the market.
Further about 80 per cent of the population in Singapore lives in public housing flats, which are built by the government and sold to local resident household buyers based on the principle of one unit for each household.
