(Jan 2): Singapore private home prices rebounded after its first drop in more than a year, underpinned by a rush of sales of new projects.

Private residential prices rose 2.3% in the last quarter of 2024, compared with the previous three months, according to preliminary estimates from an index released on Thursday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). That reverses a 0.7% drop in the third quarter, and is the largest increase in a year.

Home prices for the whole year rose 3.9% based on preliminary numbers, marking the eighth consecutive year of increases.

For most of 2024, Singapore’s private property market saw a slowdown, partly because developers held back on major project releases. A year-end rush of sales, along with cheaper borrowing costs, changed the dynamic. In November, developers sold the most private units in a single month since 2013.

That’s prompted analysts, including those from Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc, to say that the government could roll out more real estate curbs. The city-state’s ruling party is gearing up for an election within less than a year, and housing affordability has been a major concern for voters.

“The property market looks set to fire up further in 2025, if the government does not respond quickly with more cooling measures,” Barclays economist Brian Tan wrote in a note Thursday. “If the government does choose to act quickly, cooling measures could materialise as early as this week or next.”

Another closely watched measure, a price index of second-hand public housing flats, where the bulk of locals live, surged by 9.6% in 2024, compared with 4.9% a year prior, according to a separate preliminary estimate released on Thursday, although the pace of growth slowed slightly on a quarterly basis to 2.5%, from 2.7%.

Despite the government seeking to tame that segment of the market with curbs in August, Tan said it only appears to have had a “limited restraining effect”.

The URA, which has long called for buyer prudence due to elevated domestic mortgage rates, said on Thursday that there are several downside risks in 2025, including “possible renewed restrictions to global trade”.

Singapore introduced multiple rounds of measures in recent years to control property prices, including doubling the stamp duty for most foreigners to 60%. Finalised changes to the private real estate price index are set to be published towards the end of January.

Uploaded by Liza Shireen Koshy