Singapore property prices expected to move up, fuelled by en bloc mark

Property prices are expected to move up in the coming months and now may be a good time to start looking if you have not bought your property, said Carmen Lee, head of research for OCBC Investment Research, during a briefing on the mid-year market outlook on Friday.

The rosier outlook for the Singapore property market could be fuelled by the collective sale market, which has seen three major en bloc sales within a week, which would take about 800 to 900 units off the market.

Ms Lee said: "If we look at this versus last year, when the en bloc market was actually very slow, you know that the interest coming into the market in the next six to nine months and then 12 months will perhaps be quite aggressive from these 900 people who need to look for new units to buy."

The latest en bloc sale was in Eunos, where the 330-unit privatised HUDC estate Eunosville was sold at S$765 million - the second highest price ever for such a property. The price represents a premium of more than 17 per cent over the S$643 million to S$653 million the owners had asked for when the site was launched for tender in April.

Ms Lee said: "If you look at the Paya Lebar area, which is just one station away (from Eunos), we are talking about a per square foot of about 1,800 to 2,000."

She said that situations like this happen and thus rebalancing will follow, with prices of properties moving slightly higher in the coming months.

She also noted that the government has already done some fine-tuning measures for the property market and thus "the heavy sort of measures are not going to be lifted anytime soon".

"But the signalling is very positive," she said.

Adapted from: The Business Times, 10 June 2017