Home sales will fall, even prices may slide

In what could be the first rumblings of a long-raging storm, property counters fell while analysts predicted that private home sales would drop and even prices may dip.

Some expect property stocks to fall by up to 15 per cent in the wake of the most comprehensive round of cooling measures to hit the sector.

The more dire estimates expect property prices, which have climbed despite previous cooling measures, to fall by up to 10 per cent and for transaction volumes to crash by up to 50 per cent.

Analysts have also warned that more measures could be in the works.

The immediate impact of the measures was evident in the stock market, where property counters took a beating. Some of the biggest losers included Wing Tai Holdings which lost 18 cents (8.9 per cent) to close at $1.84, City Developments which lost 95 cents (7.54 per cent) to close at $11.65, and Keppel Land which lost 31 cents (7.2 per cent) to close at $3.97.

SC Global Developments, the subject of a privatisation bid by chairman and chief executive Simon Cheong, bucked the trend, climbing half a cent to close at $1.805.

Yesterday, Mr Cheong bought an additional 3.042 million shares at $1.795-$1.80 each. With the public float standing at 14.52 per cent, any additional acquisition by Mr Cheong and/or other non-public shareholders that in aggregate exceeds 4.5 per cent will bring the public float below the minimum 10 per cent that is required for the company to stay listed. Mr Cheong's privatisation offer closes tomorrow.

Source: Business Times –15 January 2013