Singapore private home prices rose more than initially estimated in the first quarter, as a rush for new projects continued to buoy the local market.
Prices climbed 0.9 percent from the previous three months, according to final figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released Friday. That’s more than the 0.3 percent preliminary reading. Analysts expected the upward revision after a flurry of sales toward the end of March.
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Locals and immigrants have been flocking to buy new apartments in the city-state, even after authorities introduced multiple curbs to cool the market. Fears about the economic fallout from the conflict in the Middle East have yet to make a significant dent in sentiment, especially with borrowing costs remaining low.
“The conflict in the Middle East does not appear to affect the buyers trawling newly opened showflats at the moment,” said Leonard Tay, head of research for property broker Knight Frank LLP in Singapore. Price growth is on track to increase by 3 percent to 5 percent in 2026, with demand for new launches driving a “widening gulf” against used-home values, he wrote in a note.
Underscoring that demand, sales of new private homes rose to a five-month high in March, when more than 1,000 units were sold. Rents climbed 0.3 percent in the first quarter, compared with a 0.5 percent drop three months earlier.
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Singapore has some of the priciest real estate in the world. A recent annual report by Knight Frank estimated that $1 million only fetched about 28 square meters of prime real estate in the financial hub at the end of last year — less than major cities like London, New York and Tokyo.
Locals are somewhat shielded, as most live in subsidized government-built housing, but prices for such flats in the second-hand market are being influenced by the boom in the private market as well. Prices for second-hand public housing fell 0.1 percent in the first quarter, the first decline in nearly seven years.
