Property sales still down, Labour MP says on slight price surge

Gulia was talking of the latest all-property price index, which registered a rise of 0.38% in the January-March quarter, over the same period in 2009. This primarily reflected an increase of 2.08 per cent in the apartments index, compared to the corresponding quarter last year. However, when compared to 2008, prices went down by 2.46 per cent.

The All-Transactions Volume Index showed that the number of transactions in the first quarter of 2010 increased by 3.93 per cent when compared to the corresponding period in 2009.

“One must see the NSO data in context… government’s limited interpretation is that the market is out of the woods when in fact, the  marginal 0.4% increase is less than the inflation rate of 0.8%, which means in real terms, the market is still falling,” Gulia said.

Gulia added that although the volume of sales had increased by almost 4% over the 2009 quarter, the actual volume of sales between both periods still shows a shortfall of 11% in 2010. “It’s not a question of peak seasons here, as in tourism… the comparison over 2009 is a legitimate one. These are signs the property market has not recovered yet.”