HDB resale prices recorded an increase of 2.3% q-o-q in 2Q2024, marking its 17th consecutive quarterly price growth, according to quarterly public housing data from HDB.

Public housing resale price growth in 2Q2024 is an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 1.8% q-o-q. It also marks the fastest quarterly price growth since 4Q2022’s 2.3%, notes Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee Group.

Growing demand for larger units

Resale transaction volumes in 2Q2024 were up 4% to 7,352 transactions from 7,068 transactions in 1Q2024. On a yearly basis, the number of resale transactions in 2Q2024 went up by 12.9%.

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In 1H2024, 14,420 resale flats were sold, surpassing the 13,493 units sold in 1H2023. This is also the highest half-year sales since 1H2021 when 14,644 resale flats were sold.

The number of larger flats sold rose in 2Q2024, climbing from 28.6% of total sales in 1H2023 to 29.2% in 1H2024, says Sun. The demand for larger resale flats has remained strong despite the general uptrend in prices. She attributes the rise in larger flats being sold to purchases by private homeowners who had fulfilled their 15-month wait-out period (part of the cooling measures introduced in September 2022).

The average resale price of a five-room flat increased by 2.8% q-o-q in 2Q2024, compared to 1.5% growth in the previous quarter, according to HDB data from data.gov.sg as of July 26. There was an increase in five-room resale flats sold - a 9.3% jump to 4,214 transactions in 1H2024, from 3,854 transactions in 1H2023.

October BTO to launch 8,500 flats under new classification system

According to HDB, the upcoming October BTO launch will introduce about 8,500 new flats across 15 projects. This is the first time that the BTO projects will be classified under the new system of Standard, Plus or Prime flats based on their specific locational attributes.

Sun expects consumer confidence to improve given the currently positive market outlook for the public housing sector, which is underpinned by Singapore’s economic growth and improved hiring landscape.

Given the robust demand for resale flats and the fact that price growth is on target, Sun revised her projections to an 8% increase for HDB resale price in 2024.

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Mohan Sandrasegeran, SRI head of research and data analytics, anticipates “between 5% and 7%” growth in HDB resale flat prices for the full year.