SINGAPORE: The city-state’s property market demonstrated robust growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, with private home and HDB resale flat prices posting significant quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increases. According to the latest Real Estate Asia report, this performance was driven mainly by a strong surge in private home sales and sustained demand for public housing, according to PropNex Realty.
Private home prices increased sharply by 2.3% in Q4 2024, reversing the 0.7% decline recorded in the previous quarter. This marks the fastest quarterly price growth since Q4 2023, when prices rose by 2.8%. With this uptick, the cumulative price growth for private homes in 2024 reached 3.9%, continuing a trend of decelerating price increases that began in 2022. These results align with PropNex’s earlier flash estimates.
A closer look at the market reveals that the non-landed private homes segment led the charge in price growth, with prices rising by 3.0% in Q4 2024. All major submarkets—Core Central Region (CCR), Rest of Central Region (RCR), and Outside Central Region (OCR)—saw price hikes, with OCR recording the most substantial increase at 3.3%. For the full year, the RCR saw the fastest growth in non-landed private home prices, at 5.8%, followed by the CCR at 4.5% and OCR at 3.7%. Notably, the OCR’s price growth has significantly slowed from a 13.7% increase in 2023, signalling a more sustainable pace in the mass market.
Conversely, landed home prices experienced a slight dip in Q4, falling by 0.1% QoQ. This marks the second consecutive quarterly decline, and the cumulative price growth for landed homes in 2024 was just 0.9%, the slowest in seven years. A notable factor contributing to this decline was a drop in transactions, with 485 landed homes changing hands in Q4 compared to 521 in Q3. Additionally, a lack of new landed homes entering the market and higher interest rates have dampened demand in this segment.
The overall sales volume of new private homes also grew in Q4 2024, with developers selling 3,420 units, bringing the total for the year to 6,469—an increase of 0.7% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the resale market saw a sharp rebound, with 3,702 private homes resold in Q4, contributing to a 24% year-on-year increase in total resale transactions. The total resale volume for 2024 stood at 14,053 units, the highest in three years. As a result, resale transactions accounted for just under 50% of all sales in Q4, the lowest proportion in nearly four years.
In contrast, private home rentals showed signs of weakness. While rental prices remained flat in Q4, they dropped by 1.9% throughout 2024—marking the first year-on-year decline since 2020. However, the completion of 8,460 private homes in 2024 and a forecasted decline in completions to 5,846 homes in 2025 could offer some support to the rental market in the coming year.
Overall, Singapore’s private home market has exhibited notable resilience in the face of evolving economic conditions, suggesting a steady but balanced outlook for 2025.
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