Prices of private residential properties in Singapore continued to rise strongly in the second quarter, highlighting how the jursidiction's status as a growing wealth management hub was helping to fuel price increases, according to flash estimates by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). The latest rise means that prices have surpassed the previous peak reached in 1996.

The private-residential-property price index, based on URA estimates, rose from 175.0 points in the first quarter to 184.1 points in the second quarter, it said.

While this increase of 5.2 per cent is lower compared with the 5.6 per cent rise in the previous quarter, the preliminary estimate of the Q2 residential price index, at 184.1 points, is higher than the market peak of 181.4 points back in the second quarter of 1996, Joseph Tan, executive director (residential) at CB Richard Ellis, was quoted as saying by AsiaOne.

Prices rose the most, by 5.7 per cent in the quarter, among non-landed private residential properties in the Outside Central Region.

The government imposed a 1 per cent to 3 per cent tax on residential properties sold within one year of purchase and lowered the loan-to-value limit on private housing loans to 80 per cent, from 90 per cent.

The flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in caveats lodged during the first ten weeks of the quarter supplemented by information on the number of new units sold, the URA said.