Singapore's new private home sales sharply down in December

A total of 259 units of new private homes were sold in last December, sharply down by about 80 percent compared from the figure of 1,271 units in November, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released on Wednesday. The figure was also much lower than the 1,410 units recorded the same month in 2012, or down 81.6 percent year on year. Among the 259 units, 125 units are located in the suburban areas. There were 90 units sold in the city fringe, while the remaining 44 units were snapped up in the city region. If Executive Condominium, a public-private housing hybrid, are included, developers moved 333 units in December, again down from November's 1,758. About 80 percent of the resident population in Singapore live in public housing flats built and sold by the government to resident households. The market for private homes, or those built and sold by private developers, is typically high-end. The city-state had rolled out several rounds of cooling measures to curb the soaring property prices in recent years. Some industry insiders said the weak sales performance in December was mainly due to the government's cooling measures.