News Releases

1 July 2008

URA releases flash 2nd quarter 2008 private residential property price index

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released today the flash estimate of the price index of private residential property for 2nd Quarter 2008.

Based on the estimated price index of private residential property, prices rose from 177.2 points in the 1st Quarter 2008 to 177.9 points in the 2nd Quarter 2008. This represents an increase of 0.4%, compared with the 3.7% increase in the previous quarter (see Annex A).

URA also released today the flash estimates of the price changes in the 3 geographical regions for 2nd Quarter 2008. Prices of non-landed private residential properties increased by 0.2% in Core Central Region, 0.7% in Rest of Central Region and 1.3% in Outside Central Region in the quarter (see Annex B). In comparison, for 1st Quarter 2008, prices of non-landed private residential properties increased by 3.8% in Core Central Region, 3.3% in Rest of Central Region and 3.8% in Outside Central Region.

The flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in caveats lodged during the first ten weeks of the quarter supplemented by information on the number of new units sold. The statistics will be updated 4 weeks later when URA releases the full 2nd Quarter 2008 real estate statistics, when more data on the caveats lodged and the take-up of new projects are captured. Past data have shown that the difference between the quarterly price changes indicated by the flash estimate and the actual price changes could be significant when the change is small. The public is advised to interpret the flash estimates with caution.

The Government will continue to monitor prices closely and release relevant price sensitive information in a timely manner. On the supply side, as at 1st Quarter 2008, there were about 67,700 private residential units in the pipeline, of which about 56,500 new private housing units are expected to be completed between 2008 and 20111. About 42,700 units of the supply in the pipeline (or 63%) had not been sold by developers yet.

1The supply in the pipeline is based on declarations by developers to URA in 1st Quarter 2008. The pipeline supply figures will be updated with information provided by developers and released as part of the 2nd Quarter Real Estate Statistics on 25 July 2008.