Several property agents, however, believe that such opportunistic moves will not work.
With the introduction of
higher income ceiling and higher grants expected to boost the HDB
resale market, some sellers
wasted no time to raise their asking price in the hopes of gaining
more profits.
In fact, a couple who are
trying to sell their HDB flat in Hougang has asked their property agent,
ERA Realty senior marketing
director Davon Chai, to increase their asking price to $550,000 –
way higher compared to
$480,000 last transacted price of a similar unit nearby, reported Today Online.
“When
some sellers look at these new grants, they get very optimistic and excited and
end up
raising prices based on HDB’s
ballpark figure of the grants that buyers can get,” said Chai.
“It actually makes it
difficult for us agents. With these new grants, it will take some effort for us
to
close the gap between the
buyers’ expectations (of more affordable homes) and the sellers’ wish
to profit (from the grants).”
Several
property agents, however, believe that such opportunistic moves will not work.
They noted that while the
announcement spiked interest in the resale market, this is not likely to last.
“The knee-jerk reaction is
that it will indeed ignite more buying interest for resale flats from around
this weekend or for September itself,” said property analyst Ong Kah Seng.
Thereafter,
most sellers will likely take a wait-and-see stance in the next few months as
they “digest” the grants’ impact.
And
even if many buyers actually bought units despite the jacked up prices by
opportunistic sellers,
it will still take at least a
month before these transaction will be reflected in the official valuation,
said ERA senior marketing director Bhavina Kaur.
This
is important since some buyers refuse to buy a flat that is overvalued by
$5,000 as “people simply refuse to top up in cash”, she added.
According
to HDB rules on resale units, buyers who wish to pay above the valuation has to
pay the difference in cash and not from their CPF.
In concurring, ERA key
executive officer Eugene Lim said the days of paying high cash-over-valuation amounts
for HDB resale units are over.
“Sellers need to price
realistically according to what the market will pay, if not they will help
their more realistic neighbour sell the flats,” he said.
Agnes Ong at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her
about this or other stories,