Private and public housing growing at slower pace
The Housing & Development Board (HDB) reported that the Resale Price Index of public flats rose by 1.2% quarter-on-quarter (qoq) to 205.4 in its flash estimate for 1Q2013. This marks the lowest qoq growth in the resale prices of flats since 1Q2012.

In the same announcement, HDB said it will offer 4,850 Build-to-Order (BTO) flats, adding up to a total of 25,000 BTO flats for the year.

According to another flash estimate from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) Price Index, private property prices rose 0.5% in 1Q2013 to a record 213.1. The increase was the smallest since 2Q2012, with last quarter’s growth coming in at 1.8%. Data for March’s home sales are expected to come out in mid-April.

China’s home prices increase most in 26 months
SouFun Holdings Ltd, China’s largest real estate website owner, said in a statement on Monday that China’s March new home prices posted the biggest gain in more than 2 years. According to Bloomberg, this data was presented after a survey of 100 cities, showing that prices climbed for the 10th month to 9,998 yuan, an increase of 1.1% month-on-month. It is also the biggest increase since January 2011. 

On 1 March, China’s central government had introduced additional measures such as a 20% capital gain tax as well as higher down payments. Over the weekend, Beijing announced that it will ban single-person households from buying more than 1 house while Shanghai would be banning banks from giving loans to buyers getting their third home.

Yanlord bad, CapitaLand worse
CapitaLand tested $4.03 twice in January before plunging to register a -4.6% drop in the first quarter of 2013. Yanlord, a high-end property developer in China, managed to fare better by slipping -1.3% for the quarter. Both stocks had underperformed the STI’s +4.5%.

Source: Macquarie Research - 02 Apr 2013