25/09/2015

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PAP or Opposition ward? No difference to home value: Study

TODAY reports: HDB resale price movements are similar across Singapore, according to a study by property portal 99.co.

SINGAPORE: With the General Election 2015 over and the People’s Action Party (PAP) winning all but two electoral divisions, research by property portal 99.co has showed that when it comes to housing price movements, it does not matter whether a home is located in a constituency held by the ruling party or an opposition party.

Amid perceptions that Opposition-held constituencies are not upgraded as much as ruling party wards and get fewer amenities, and thus may be seen as being less attractive as a residential area, 99.co studied housing price data from the past 10 years.

The first two graphs show how private housing prices in the four constituencies — Aljunied, Ang Mo Kio, Potong Pasir and West Coast — have changed from July 2006 to July this year.

Both Aljunied and Potong Pasir outperformed the Singapore average in terms of the property price appreciation, 99.co noted. In fact, both constituencies are among the best performing areas in Singapore, with its properties more than doubling in price on average over the last 10 years — a growth rate of over 100 per cent.

For PAP constituencies, 99.co noted that for Ang Mo Kio and West Coast, home prices in the former have performed just as well as those in Aljunied, but those in the latter lagged behind the national average, growing only about 50 per cent in the last 10 years.

The price movements and trend lines in the constituencies have remained in sync with the national average and other wards despite control of Aljunied and Potong Pasir changing hands in 2011.

“The rise or fall of property prices is not dependent on whether the property is in a PAP or an Opposition ward. Rather, the property prices are a factor of the location, and the corresponding supply and demand characteristics at the given point in time,” said Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer of real estate agency ERA.

99.co noted that over the last 10 years, HDB resale prices in almost all wards have appreciated 80 to 100 per cent. With the exception of the spike in Tanjong Pagar due to Pinnacle@Duxton having matured for resale in 2014, the graph lines for all of the wards have been pretty much the same.

One can buy an HDB resale flat anywhere in Singapore and its price would move very much in line with other parts of the island, unlike private housing, where the price appreciation has varied widely from 50 to 150 per cent, 99.co noted.

“The data from 99.co clearly indicates that there is no difference in the valuations of residences between neighbourhoods. This likely indicates that common areas such as pavements, drainage and landscaping are being managed to similar standards. Otherwise, over two to three years, the differences will show and valuations in badly-managed districts would drop,” said Mr Ku Swee Yong, chief executive of property agency Century 21 Singapore.

Picture Source: File photo: HDB flats in Singapore. (Photo: Hester Tan)
Source copied from: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/pap-or-opposition-ward-no/2134718.html

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