SINGAPORE: Private home prices in Singapore rose by 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, according to official flash estimates released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (Apr 1).

This is the slowest price increment since the second quarter of 2020, when prices rose by 0.3 per cent.

Prices went up by 5 per cent in the previous quarter.

The first quarter private residential property index increased to 174.3 points, up 0.7 points from the last quarter.

"Overall, the significantly slower pace of price increase at 0.4 per cent from 5 per cent last quarter was expected," said Catherine He, Colliers' head of research for Singapore.

"This can be attributed to a multitude of factors such as the slower rate of sales and launches during the lunar new year period, uncertainty from geopolitical tensions, buyers taking a wait-and-see approach post cooling measures and budget, as well as impending interest rate hikes."

OrangeTee & Tie's senior vice president of research and analytics Christine Sun added: "Some prospective buyers may have seized the opportunity to negotiate and get (a) better-selling price, resulting in deals taking slightly longer to close and price increment slowing in some areas."

Prices of non-landed private residential properties in the Core Central Region (CCR) decreased by 0.5 per cent, compared to the 2.7 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

Prices in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) decreased by 3 per cent, compared to the 6.7 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

The drop in prices for the two regions could be attributed to the cooling measures which seem to have a greater impact on investors and foreign buyers, said Ms Sun.

Prices in Outside Central Region (OCR) increased at a slower pace of 1.9 per cent, compared to the 5.7 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

"The OCR segment was the outperformer at 1.9 per cent quarter on quarter with healthy sales at Florence residences, Belgravia Ace and Dairy Farm residences," said Ms He

Florence residences, Belgravia Ace and Dairy Farm residences sold a combined 220 units during the period.

The flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in contracts submitted for stamp duty payment and data on units sold by developers up till mid-March.

URA will release its full set of updated real estate statistics for the first quarter of 2022 later this month.

Source: CNA