At MortgageWise, we try to provide our property investor clients with a snapshot of the performance of Singapore residential property market regularly through our own basket of condos which will provide supplementary insights in a more meaningful and personal manner than just a broad-based index from URA. Properties are not created equal and some will rise or fall more than the rest.

The condos selected in the basket are deemed iconic enough to be representative of prices in a particular precinct that is smaller than a whole central region or outside central region as defined by URA.  For areas outside central region we also tend to pick condos either right at or nearest MRT stations as these tend to be well sought after by investors.  Our basket would allow property investors to see the actual variation in prices over time for a particular group of condos that are fairly well-known in Singapore.  However our illustration is nothing more than simple averages of all transactions done over 6-month periods and in cases where there are less than 5 transactions (marked with an asterisk) do take the reading with a pinch of salt.  We also highlight the highest psf achieved in the period.

We will look at the performance of the basket of condos in the most recent 6-month period, and contrast that with the preceding 6-month.  Percentage variation of more than 5% will deemed significant enough to be highlighted (in blue for increase and in red for decline).

The effect of the most recent round of cooling measures in 2018 announced on 6 July will not be seen in this set of numbers. In that announcement earlier in the month, the government has cited that it took just 4 quarters for PPI (Property Price Index) to recover back 9.1% of its total decline of 11.6% in the last 15 quarters as seen below.

Our basket of iconic condos also largely reflected that trend with most of the average psf prices in blue reflecting solid increases especially for investment-grade condos in district 9 the likes of Cosmopolitan, Rivergate in River Valley or Robertson Quay.  All of the transactions done at these two popular condos favoured by investors are above $2,000 psf in the 6-month period – an impressive record indeed.

We also see average psf (a more reliable indicator than highest psf achieved) prices rise meaningfully for mass market condos all over the island east west or north.  More than half of them register above 5% increase in transacted prices over the 2 periods of study, with the best performer J-Gateway in the Jurong Lake District and Glades in the Tanah Merah/Airport precinct.

What will be more interesting is our next property market reporting around end of January 2019 when we will examine if all these prices hold up in the face of the harsh cooling measures.  So stay tuned.

Since 2014, MortgageWise.sg has provided thought leadership in the mortgage planning space in Singapore, taking deep dives into the latest trends in the industry, providing useful mortgage tips, and making sense of rate movements. We aim to build trust with clients for longer term partnership and not just do product-pushing for a one-time deals unlike bankers. That’s why we always present “whole-of-market” perspective including packages that banks do not pay us.