In spite of the fact that quite a few apartment buildings were put up for a collective sale during the year that passed, plus the developers that launched themselves in bidding in a rather courageous manner, making everybody believe that the collective sale phenomenon will go through the roof, things are beginning to calm down. For 3 years in a row, the prices of properties were in a continuous drop, until this year started. Apparently, 2018 will bring the much-needed turnaround point in the property market of Singapore, as signs of improved traction are beginning to appear. Even so, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves with too much optimism because the change is far from being too significant at the moment.
Those in charge with keeping an eye on the evolution of the property market did foresee an increase in prices, but their forecasts are in a rather wide range. According to these experts, the prince can reach a 3% growth, as stated by the pessimists, and may go up to 15%, as believed by the most optimistic of them. But, one thing is agreed by everyone, and that is the fact that resales are going to be the engine of the price increase, also stimulating the number of transactions on the property market to go higher than in 2017. Still, when it comes to the number of sold houses, we won’t see a chance in this sector, as everybody expects things to stagnate. This is happening due to the fact that many developers will slow down the pace of the projects that are soon going to be released, so they can enjoy better prices.
As a reaction to this kind of new, the Government is keeping an eye on the market, so that cooling down measures are adopted in case there are any risks for the prices to spike too much. But, the observers of the market think that such a thing won’t happen anytime soon, at least not in 2018. According to some experts, the speed of the price increase will dictate the period of this phenomenon. Thus, if the increase will be slight, of 5% per year for example, then the prices will continue to grow until 2020. But, if the prices go up too fast, reaching 17%, then all the opportunities provided by this increase will be exhausted in 2019. This is how a growth circle goes. The prices start increasing up to a point, after which they will begin to decrease back.
Still, it is believed that the generous number of units that are going to be put out for sale in 2018 and 2019, 20,000 units to be more precise, won’t allow the prices to go up too fast. Also, speaking about collective sales, the interest in such type of transactions is decreasing. Recently, there were 6 collective sales available on the market, but, so far, only 3 of them actually sold. This decrease will be fueled even more as owners will have bigger price expectations, leading to a consistent gap between buyers and sellers. Thus, it is expected that the collective sales market to hit idle anytime soon.
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