Private home prices jump 2.3% in Q4 2024 after surge of new home sales in November

Private residential property prices rose 2.3 per cent in the last three months of 2024, reversing a 0.7 per cent drop from the previous quarter after a last-minute surge in new home sales in November following cuts in local mortgage interest rates.

- Grace Leong

The traditionally quiet fourth quarter bloomed into an active period for property launches and sales after developers, having held off for most of the year, released a slew of projects in November to capitalise on lower borrowing costs and pent-up demand, noted Ms Chia Siew Chuin, JLL's head of residential research in Singapore.

Nonetheless, the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) overall private home price index grew at a slower pace of 3.9 per cent in 2024, compared with a 6.6 per cent gain in 2023.

It is the slowest annual price growth recorded since 2020, when prices increased by just 2.2 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting buyer caution.

Prices in the landed segment stabilised, dipping just 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with flash estimates of a 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter correction. This follows a 3.4 per cent drop in the preceding quarter.

Fuelled by November's sizzling new home launches sales, non-landed home prices jumped 3 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 0.1 per cent gain in the previous quarter.

For 2024, prices of landed properties rose by 0.9 per cent, while those of non-landed properties jumped 4.7 per cent, moderating from 8 per cent and 6.6 per cent growth, respectively, in 2023.