Private home prices in Singapore are still inching higher — albeit at the slowest pace in five quarters — even after the government imposed additional property curbs to avoid the risk of a sharp correction that could be destabilizing to the city-state’s economy.
An index tracking private residential prices increased 0.5 percent in the three months that ended on Sunday, compared with a 3.4 percent advance in the June quarter, according to a flash estimate from the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday.
That added to a 9.1 percent gain in the year through June.
Photo: Reuters
Apartment prices in prime districts rose 1.2 percent last quarter compared with a 0.9 percent gain in three month through June 30, the data showed.
Unit prices in suburban areas added 0.1 percent after climbing 3 percent in the previous quarter, according to the data.
Prices near prime areas slid 0.8 percent after gaining 5.6 percent in the June quarter, the data showed.
Singapore in July took renewed steps to cool its property market after a steep rise in home prices in the first six months of the year.
The rush of transactions was fueled by aggressive land bids from developers and so-called en bloc transactions, in which a group of owners band together to sell entire apartment buildings.
Under the new rules, individuals taking out their first housing loan face stricter borrowing limits, meaning they have to stump up more cash upfront.
For foreign purchasers of residential property, the additional buyer’s stamp duty was increased to 20 percent from 15 percent.
For Singaporeans, the extra charges only apply from their second home purchase.
As developer stocks sink, investors are turning toward businesses that hold the real-estate assets rather than the ones that sell them.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San