House prices up by 1.86% y-o-y in 2019

Singapore’s house price rises continue, albeit at a much slower pace, amidst slowing economy. House prices rose by 1.86% during 2019, a sharp slowdown from a y-o-y growth of 7.32% a year earlier. Quarter-on-quarter, house prices increased slightly by 0.22% during the latest quarter.

Demand continues to fall

In 2019, total home sales, which include new sales, sub-sales and resales, fell by 13.5% y-o-y to 19,150 units, following a decline of 11.5% a year earlier, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

In Q4 2019, there were a total of 373,561 housing units available in Singapore, up by 0.4% from the previous quarter, according to URA. Of which 353,082 units are occupied, while the remaining 20,479 units are available, making up a 5.5% vacancy rate (sharply down from 6.1% in Q3 2019, 6.4% in Q2, and 6.3% in Q1).

Rents, rental yields: yields are poor in Singapore at 3.3%

Singapore apartment costs are high, at around $14,373 per sq. m. 

Singapore: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
	Buying price	Rate per month	Yield
Singapore	$1,724,760	$4,736	3.30%

Recent news. Singapore’s economic growth slowed to a miniscule 0.7% in 2019 from a year earlier, sharply down from an annual expansion of 3.1% in 2018 and the weakest performance since 2009. This was mainly attributed to a decline in manufacturing and exports sector, amidst the ongoing US-China trade war. 

In February 2020, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong said that the economy is on the verge of a recession, mainly due to the expected blow from the new coronavirus outbreak. In fact, the government recently cut its GDP forecast to as low as a 0.5% contraction, from its previous projection of a growth of about 0.5% to 2.5%.