SG Morning Highlights | Seatrium Secures S$400m Green Revolving Loan Facility from UOB

Advancers / Decliners is 72 to 51, with 39.84 million securities worth S$64.04 million changing hands.

More than 4,400 new private homes are set to launch in Singapore's suburban residential market in the next 12 months, accounting for 50% of the 8,800 private homes that will be launched this year, according to OrangeTee & Tie. This marks the highest percentage of suburban project launches in seven years, as the volume of condos launched in the suburbs has been limited over the past few years. The property consultancy expects the increase in launched units to meet pent-up demand for private homes in the suburbs and slow down the pace of price growth for new condos. OrangeTee highlights several project launches to watch out for in the suburbs this year, including SORA, Lentor Mansion, Lumina Grand EC, and Champions Way. Island-wide, OrangeTee expects prices of private homes to moderate this year, rising by just 3% to 6%.

Data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed that Singapore's inflation rate slightly picked up to 3.7% in December 2023, compared to 3.6% in November 2023. The increase in the consumer price index (CPI)-all items inflation was due to a faster pace of increase in private transport costs and a pickup in services inflation. However, expenditure divisions such as electricity and gas and food saw a decline in the rate of price increase. Core inflation for the month also slightly increased to 3.3% YoY. In 2023, headline inflation averaged 4.8%, down from 6.1% in 2022, while core inflation averaged 4.2%, up from 4.1% in 2022. MTI expects core inflation to average 2.5%-3.5% for 2024, excluding the transitory effects of the 1%-point increase in the GST rate to 9%. The forecast range for headline inflation will be released in MAS' January Monetary Policy Statement.

The number of resold homes in Singapore dropped to 2,586 units in 4Q23, the lowest quarterly sales since 2Q22. The whole year saw a decline of 18.4% in resale volume, from 14,003 units in 2022 to 11,426 units. The number of resale transactions in 2023 is also lower than the five-year average of 13,353 units from 2018 to 2022. However, resale home prices saw an upturn in 4Q23 as prices rose in luxury, city fringe, and suburban areas. The average price of resale homes, excluding executive condominiums, grew 2.7% from $1,630 psf in 3Q23 to $1,674 psf in 4Q23, according to data from the URA. Non-landed properties saw a 3.7% QoQ price increase, while landed properties dipped 3.1% in resale price in 4Q23. OrangeTee expects the prices of resale homes to increase moderately in 2024 as supply falls by 48.2%.