The resale prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats fell 0.8 per cent in November, hitting a 40-month low since August 2011, the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) said on Thursday (Dec 4).

Prices fell by 0.8 per cent for three- room HDB flats, 1.2 per cent for four-room flats, 0.2 per cent for five-room flats, and 2.2 per cent for executive flats.

Overall, prices have declined 6.3 per cent since the same period a year ago and 9.8 per cent since the peak in April 2013, SRX said.

Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer of ERA Realty, said: “The continued reduction in HDB resale prices is expected because of the measures that have been put in place. A majority of the buyers are impacted by the mortgage servicing ratio of 30 per cent and this basically restricts their ability to take a larger loan, which therefore impacts those who are buying higher price quantum flats. This has led to a reduction in prices that are being offered to the seller, so that has brought down prices.”

The Government is offering 22,400 Build-To-Order flats in 2014. Analysts said the increased supply contributes to the reduction in resale flat prices.

Transaction volume fell as well. A total of 1,350 HDB resale flats were sold last month, a 13.1 per cent decrease from the 1,553 transacted units in October. Compared with a year ago, resale volume was up 11.4 per cent, SRX said.

TOX REMAINS NEGATIVE

Overall median Transaction Over X-Value (TOX), which measures whether people are overpaying or underpaying the SRX estimated market value, remained negative in November at -S$3,000.

For HDB towns with more than 10 resale transactions last month, Geylang reported the highest median TOX of S$8,000, followed by Queenstown with S$7,500 and Toa Payoh with S$3,500.

Among HDB towns with more than 10 transactions, the lowest median TOX were in Bukit Panjang, Pasir Ris and Yishun, at -S$10,000, -S$6,500 and -S$6,500, respectively.

PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail said prices will continue to fall. “I am expecting the HDB prices not to increase, but neither can you expect a sudden drop of 10 per cent or so, it is highly unlikely. What we are going to expect in the next six months here is a further marginal drop of about 2 per cent.”

He added that flats in mature estates will still command higher prices. “Looking at the index – which is islandwide – may not be applicable for some mature estates, where the demand is strong. People have the holding power, and sometimes they will go against the norm and because after all, it’s been a willing buyer and willing seller system.”