6 in 10 S'poreans think Government should regulate prices of new condos: Survey

A higher proportion of Singaporeans would like the Government to regulate prices of new private homes compared to six months ago, based on a survey by property portal PropertyGuru.

Out of 794 respondents polled in the first half of this year, 58 per cent said that there should be more price regulation — up from 49 per cent in the second half of last year.

The survey, which is conducted half-yearly, also found that a majority of Singaporeans — eight out of 10 — were dissatisfied with the current real-estate climate chiefly because they felt that private property prices were overpriced.

Based on the third-quarter flash data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, private property prices have gone up by 0.9 per cent since the last quarter.

The quarter-to-quarter increase was 1.5 per cent previously.

About half of those surveyed by PropertyGuru expect private property prices to continue going up in the second half of this year.

Comparatively, only about one-third felt that the prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats would go up. This could be due to ongoing concerns about the depleting leases of HDB resale flats.

Commenting on the prices of property in Singapore, Dr Tan Tee Khoon, country manager of PropertyGuru Singapore, said that the property market here continues to be "positively differentiated" from other markets in the region and it is a "relative safe haven given its political stability and good governance".

When it comes to buying a property, the PropertyGuru survey found that Singaporeans were more cautious.

The Property Purchase Intent index — which measures the likelihood of respondents buying a property here in the next six months — fell to an all-time low since the survey started nine years ago.

Ref: Property Report