Singapore, 13 Apr 2021 Households in Singapore might need to save up more or take a slightly bigger mortgage to buy a Housing Board (HDB) resale flat, based on median incomes and prices in 2020.
Overall median prices of HDB resale flats transacted last year were about 3.9 times a household's median yearly earnings. This is a tad higher than 3.5 times in 2019, based on The Business Times' (BT) analysis of data from SRX, OrangeTee & Tie and the Department of Statistics (DOS).
The 2020 price-to-income multiple - known as an "affordability ratio" - suggests a household, without spending on anything else, has to save for 3.9 years to buy a public housing flat from the resale market.
HDB resale prices in the first quarter of 2021 climbed 2.8 per cent from the previous quarter, and were up 8 per cent year-on-year, according to flash estimates. These prices were just 5 per cent lower than the peak recorded in the second quarter of 2013, OrangeTee & Tie senior vice-president of research and analytics, Christine Sun said. A new peak may be formed by the second half of this year if the current pace of price growth is sustained, she added.