Melanie Lee & Kevin Lim
Reuters
Singapore private home prices fell 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter as the city-state plunged into its worst ever recession, government data showed on Friday.
The drop marked the second quarterly decline in residential property prices following a 2.4 percent fall in July-September. The decline in prices during the fourth quarter was also steeper than the initial estimate of a 5.7 percent drop made earlier this month.
Rents during the October-December period fell by 5.3 percent, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said.
Singapore releases advance estimates on property prices shortly after the end of each quarter based primarily on transactions during the first 10 weeks of the period.
The government subsequently provides detailed data for the period that includes price changes by region as well as rental trends.
Singapore’s gross domestic product shrank in the fourth quarter at a deeper-than-expected seasonally adjusted rate of 16.9 percent, the biggest fall on record, and the government said the economy may contract as much as 5 percent this year.
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