The Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) released its Singapore Residential Price Index (SPRI) for July and August.

The overall SPRI climbed 6.4% y-o-y and 0.8% m-o-m in August. The index measures the price movement of private residential non-landed resale properties,

According to Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ERA Realty, recent price movements in the private resale market have been overshadowed by new launches in the primary market. (Browse newly launched condos in Singapore right now)

“As the prices of new residential launches set new high benchmark prices with each successive launch, the prices of resale homes became relatively more affordable,” says Mak.

This led some buyers to turn to the resale market and resulted in the increase in prices, especially in the prime residential areas where the SPRI Central index increased 1.3% over July and August.

Resale caveats also show that the number of non-landed housing units transacted in July increased across the Core Central Region, Outside Central Region, and Rest of Central Region. The non-landed resale volume in the CCR increased 32.4% m-o-m in July, making it the highest among the three market segments.

But the CCR non-landed resale volume contracted 3.6% m-o-m last month. However, it is still higher than the resale volume recorded in June this year, says Mak. The volume of the OCR and RCR fell 5.0% m-o-m and 10.1% m-o-m respectively.

Mak expects private residential prices could continue to increase in the coming months as more buyers turn to the resale market due to the relatively affordable prices. Project completion delays could also push some buyers to the resale market.