Singapore's Housing and Development Board (HDB) said on Friday that about 17,000 new flats will be launched for sale this year. HDB will offer 3,600 flats in Choa Chu Kang, Geylang, Tampines and Woodlands as a part of the first Build-to-Order (BTO) exercise in February.
HDB told Channel NewsAsia that it will also hold a Re-Offer of Balance Flats exercise at the same time.
According to HDB, the resale prices for flats fell by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year from the previous quarter. The Resale Price Index fell from 132.8 to 132.6. However, the index declined by 1.5 percent for the whole of 2017.
In the fourth quarter, the total number of resale transactions fell by 1.2 percent with 5,738 transactions compared to 5,808 in the previous quarter. But, when the number was compared to the previous year, the total transactions was up by 14.5 percent.
In 2017, the number of resale transactions increased by 6.1 percent, from 20,813 to 22,077.
HDB said that the total number of HDB flats rented out also increased. In the fourth quarter, a total of 11,279 flats were rented, which shows a 5.4 percent increase from 10,698 in the third quarter.
There were a total of 53,750 flats rented out as of Dec 31 last year. This shows an increase of 0.6 percent from the third quarter.
