House prices up by 2.22% during the year to Q1 2022

Singapore’s housing market is cooling, amidst a slowing economy. Real house prices rose by a modest 2.22% y-o-y in Q1 2022, a slowdown from y-o-y increases of 6.4% in Q4 2021, 4.8% in Q3, 4.62% in Q2 and 5.31% in Q1. On a quarterly basis, house prices fell by 1.43% during the latest quarter.

Singapore’s house prices rose by almost 20% (inflation-adjusted) from 2016 to 2021, after falling by almost 10% in the three previous years .

 

Demand is now falling

In Q1 2022, total home sales, including new sales, sub-sales and resales, fell 34% y-o-y to 5,343 units, in sharp contrast to a huge 60.5% increase during 2021, according to figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

There were a total of 382,978 housing units available in Singapore in Q1 2022, up 0.2% from the previous quarter, according to URA. Of which 362,679 units are occupied, while the remaining 20,299 units are available, making up a 5.3% vacancy rate, down from 6% in the previous quarter.

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 3.7% y-o-y in Q1 2022, on surging inflation, soaring commodity prices, as well as supply chain issues brought by the Ukraine war. The economy grew strongly by 7.6% during 2021, after contracting by 4.1% in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recently, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) maintained its 2022 growth forecast for Singapore at 3% to 5%, but reiterated that growth will likely come in at the lower half of the forecast range.