Singapore HDB resale price index rises in 1993 Q1

Resale prices for flats built by Singapore's Housing and Development Board (HDB) continued to rise at the start of 1993. According to the Department of Statistics Singapore, the house price index for HDB resale property stood at 30.2 in 1993 Q1. The index is set to 100 in its base period of 2009 Q1, so the 1993 Q1 reading reflects resale flat prices at a far lower level than in the base period.

The latest reading is higher than the figure for the end of the previous year. The Department of Statistics Singapore recorded the index at 28.6 in 1992 Q4. Housing Market Group calculates, from Department of Statistics Singapore figures, that the index rose 5.6% between 1992 Q4 and 1993 Q1.

Earlier readings show the index climbing in each period covered by the available data. According to the Department of Statistics Singapore, it stood at 25.8 in 1992 Q1, moved up to 27.4 in 1992 Q2 and to 28 in 1992 Q3, and then reached 28.6 in 1992 Q4 before arriving at 30.2 in 1993 Q1.

Measured against the same point a year before, the increase is wider. Housing Market Group calculates, based on Department of Statistics Singapore figures, that the index rose 17.1% between 1992 Q1 and 1993 Q1. Over that span, the index moved from 25.8 in 1992 Q1 to 30.2 in 1993 Q1 without any recorded decline in between.

Taken together, the short-term change of 5.6% into 1993 Q1 and the annual change of 17.1% both point upward, and the period-by-period readings from 1992 Q1 onward describe a steady rise in HDB resale prices. The figures available here cover only the national HDB resale index. They do not show how other property types performed, how individual areas within Singapore compared, or how Singapore measured up against other countries over the same period, and no Housing Market Group platform data on search demand or listings is available for this period.

For readers following the long-run history of Singapore's public housing resale market, the 1993 Q1 value of 30.2 serves as an early reference point in the series published by the Department of Statistics Singapore. It sits well below the base value of 100 set for 2009 Q1 and captures a phase in which the index was rising in each successive period on record here.