National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan on Saturday called the
estimates 'quite encouraging' as they reflect moderation of price
rises for both the public housing and private property markets.
He added that the Government is also starting to see a reduction
in the volume of transactions and a continuing downward trend in
cash-over-valuation (COV), or the median cash premium paid for a
resale flat on top of its valuation.
He said that COV went from about $30,000 in the third quarter of
last year to about $23,000 in the fourth quarter. And in the first
quarter of this year, it was between $20,000 and $21,000.
He said: 'Hopefully, we will have a soft landing for prices. As
I have said many times, we are not trying to crash the market. We
are trying to achieve a soft landing for the market in keeping with
the current economic fundamentals. That's beginning to happen.'
The estimates, released last Friday, showed that resale Housing
Board (HDB) prices rose 1.6 per cent in the first quarter of the
year compared to the previous quarter. This is the lowest quarterly
increase since the second quarter of 2009.
