Prime Homes Price in Singapore Falls (24 Mar 2009)

The Knight Frank Prime International Residential Index (Piri) stated that there was around 15 percent drop in prime home prices in Singapore in the previous year, coming as the fifth largest fall worldwide.

The biggest fall in 2008 was seen by Hong Kong with 24.5 percent. It was followed by the United Kingdom Home Counties with -19.4 percent, London with -16.9 percent and Marbella in Spain with -15 percent.

Piri seemed to have made a dull image for prime home prices all over the globe.

Mr. Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, says that even several locations saw the rise on values in the past year, growth had either held up or dropped in three-quarters of locations.

“It is now clear that not even the most desirable property around the world will remain immune to the global financial downturn”, Mr. Bailey said.

“The fact that some locations did manage to show positive growth - even as much of the world slipped into recession - is more of a reflection that different regions are in different stages of the economic cycle, rather than any inherent ability to ride out the storm unscathed”.

Markets that have demonstrated outstanding growth have also fallen rapidly. The 10.8 percent increase in prices in Dubai swiftly plunged 19 percent during Q4 when investors pulled of a flooded market.

Performance in prime Asian locations has noticeably weakened recently, and drop of steep prices is rumoured as wealth creation weakens.

“The latest Piri results show that even the world's richest people have reined back their discretionary spending in light of the credit crunch and global recession”, Mr. Bailey said.

Singapore took the title as the world’s ninth most expensive city location, with S$2,340 (US$1,550) per square foot (psf) prime properties. The country was ranked eight for the past year.

Meanwhile, the top spot was garnered by Monaco having US$6,550 psf, followed by London at US$3,670 psf, and New York (Manhattan) at US$2,160 psf. The seventh spot was obtained by Hong Kong at US$2,070 psf and Tokyo, at US$2,080 psf, got the sixth spot.


Nevertheless, these locations that made it to the top ten most expensive places still experience falling prices. A 2.1 percent increase in prices was seen by Monaco this year, though it drop 10.7 percent during the final quarter of the year from the third quarter.

Looking on the brighter side, the rich remain devoted to property, according to the Wealth Report's attitudes survey. The hope to possess good property in the finest markets keeps prime residential sector to be motivated.

“We believe the quality of the best prime locations will still continue to attract buyers and will recover the quickest”, Mr. Bailey stated.