A view of construction of new private residential properties in Singapore April 29, 2021. ― Reuters picSINGAPORE, April 30 ― Ishwinder Kaur and her husband spent more than two years looking to buy their first home in Singapore, hoping property prices would dip during the hunt.
House prices rose again in the first quarter, with the private home market up 3.3 per cent, its steepest rise in nearly three years, fuelling expectations the government is likely to intervene soon to calm the market. They began advising prudence late last year, with Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam warning again in April that home buyers should exercise caution given the risk of rising interest rates. Instead, some buyers are trying to get ahead of any intervention, further driving up sales.
Private home prices fell 11.6 per cent from a 2013 peak over a span of 15 quarters after the government took steps to curb a housing market boom as Singapore emerged from the global financial crisis. Total transactions in the first quarter nearly doubled from a year ago, touching their highest in at least two years.“Some of it is because of people's view that you might see some cooling measures. So people are trying to get ahead of that,” CEO Piyush Gupta said in the bank's results call with reporters.Further out, supply is set to tighten in both the private and public housing markets due to pandemic-driven delays in construction.