According to a leading strategist at Swiss bank UBS prices of mid and lower range real estate could hold at current levels for at least the next 12 months, prices of high end properties will grow.

‘Luxury properties such as those at Sentosa, Nassim Road and Ardmore Park, where condominiums go for above $3,000 per square foot, could see further upsides. From now till the end of the year, a 5 to 8% price appreciation is not difficult,’ said Kelvin Tay, chief investment strategist at UBS Wealth Management Singapore.

‘The lower luxury segment, at districts 9, 10 and 11, might see some positive flows because of the luxury end moving up but I think that will be muted,’ he added.

He explained that the government seems to have no desire to control the luxury real estate market but the rest of the residential sector is likely to be slow as more land is released.

Figures from the National University of Singapore released in late May showed that its price index for non-landed private homes rose 2.5% in April over the previous month, reflecting an increase of about 6% since the end of last year.

But the pace of growth in home prices has slowed in the second quarter of 2010 with the exception of the mass market segment, according to DTZ Research.

The resale prices of leasehold homes in the suburban areas rose by 4% in the second quarter of 2010 to $648 per square foot compared with the 2.1% increase in the first three months of the year.

Looking ahead, DTZ analysts expects prices of mass market homes to be kept in check as the government releases more state land to meet demand.

Developers are also likely to tone down their land bids in view of the unprecedented high number of suburban sites available for tender in the second half of the year, DTZ said.

Source: Property Wire