#Tong Kooi Ong blogs* Weak property markets ahead

THIS week, The Edge predicts that home prices in Singapore will fall in the second half of this year, as developers begin to cut prices to move their unsold units.

Over the past 4 months, the take-up rate of fifty projects in Singapore, which have sold less than 50% in total, was less than 0.8% a month. Two projects have sold nothing since their launch.

The positive news is that the Singapore property market has depth and if the prices were to be reduced by 15% to 20%, the unsold inventories will move fairly quickly.

In Malaysia, home prices are definitely trending downwards as confirmed by the recently released Malaysian House Price Index. On a year to year basis, prices are up 8%. But on a quarter to quarter basis, there was no growth in the first quarter of this year.

In Selangor, prices fell 0.4%, with high rise residential units declining by 3.8%. Elsewhere, price increases were a small fraction of what it was previously.

Read The Edge this week for the complete analysis.


Tong Kooi Ong is executive chairman of The Edge Media Group. Feedback is welcomed at www.tongkooiong.com.