The private home market may have continued to enjoy robust turnover in the third quarter of this year but the prices of luxury apartments appear to have peaked.

According to a report by property consultancy Savills, the average per sq ft price for non-landed high-end private homes dipped 2 per cent to S$2,243 for the first two months of the third quarter from S$2,286 in the second quarter of this year. In the super luxury segment, prices slipped marginally – by 0.4 per cent to S$3,667 psf from S$3,681 psf.

Compared to the prices at the start of the year, high-end homes commanded 0.7 per cent less, while super-luxury prices rose 8.4 per cent. Savills said the price gaps between the current and previous price peaks in Q4 2007 narrowed further, with high-end and super-luxury home prices being just 6.9 per cent and 0.4 per cent from their peak levels, respectively. Still, Savills warned that “the outlook for the luxury home segment remains clouded” as high-end properties saw anaemic sales in the first two months of Q3. In July, only 122 units were transacted in the Core Central Region and sales were almost halved in August with 65 transactions.

Performance for the rest of the private home market was mixed. In the mid-tier non-landed homes segment, prices dipped marginally – by 1.4 per cent to S$1,193 psf in the first two months of Q3 from S$1,210 psf in Q2.

Mass market apartment prices continued to defy gravity, rising 2 per cent to S$932 psf in the first two quarters of Q3 from S$913 psf in Q2. Savills said the increases were observed across all mass-market segments – new sales (2 per cent), sub-sales (5 per cent) and resales (2 per cent).

In July, a total of 1,398 new private homes were sold, an 18-per-cent increase from the previous month. Including executive condominiums (ECs), the number of new home sales rose by a more significant 41 per cent month-on-month to 1,966 units. In August, primary sales (excluding ECs) remained steady at 1,348 units.

Source : Today – 1 Oct 2011