S'pore property prices fall

S'pore property prices fall

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Singapore saw new low benchmark prices
for private residential properties in the second quarter of 1998,
20 percent lower than six months ago, Jones Lang Wootton said
yesterday.

It attributed the downturn in sentiment to Indonesian riots in
May and a Singapore government announcement which suggested a
possible downward adjustment to its economic growth forecast and
hints at record high retrenchment levels.

Calls for wage restraint by the National Wage Council also
added to poor market sentiment and transactions slowed
significantly in May and June 1998, the property consultants said
in a statement.

It said only 870 new private housing units were launched in
the second quarter of 1998, about half the 1,730 launched in the
first quarter.

Average values for apartments and condominiums in prime
districts dropped 8.6 percent overall from S$930 per square foot
in the first quarter of 1998 to S$850 psf in the second quarter,
the statement said.