Singapore's private home prices rose faster in the third quarter of 2026 than in the second, led by condominiums in the suburbs, even as the number of sales fell. The figures are an early estimate. Separately, an industry survey for the second quarter, released in late September, showed property executives turning cautious on suburban homes.

What the flash estimate shows

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Singapore's land-use planning agency and the publisher of its official private home price index, released its flash estimate for the third quarter on 1 October 2026. The overall private residential price index rose 1.4% from the previous quarter, after a 0.5% rise in the second quarter.

Landed homes, which in URA's definition run from detached houses to townhouses and cluster housing, rose 2.8%. Non-landed homes, meaning apartments and condominiums, rose 0.9% after a 0.1% fall in the second quarter.

URA splits non-landed homes into three geographical market segments. The Core Central Region (CCR) is the prime area made up of postal districts 9, 10 and 11, the Downtown Core planning area and Sentosa. The Rest of Central Region (RCR) is the remainder of the Central Region outside those districts. The Outside Central Region (OCR) covers the areas outside the Central Region, namely the East, North East, North and West planning regions, which are often described as the suburbs.

The OCR led this quarter, with prices up 2.2% after a 0.1% fall. The RCR edged up 0.2%, and the CCR slipped 0.1% after rising 1.8% in the second quarter.

SegmentIndex, Q2 2026Change, Q2 2026Index, Q3 2026 flashChange, Q3 2026 flash
All private residential219.4+0.5%222.5+1.4%
Landed258.4+2.5%265.6+2.8%
Non-landed210.6-0.1%212.5+0.9%
Non-landed, CCR161.5+1.8%161.3-0.1%
Non-landed, RCR226.2-1.2%226.7+0.2%
Non-landed, OCR271.1-0.1%277.1+2.2%
Source: URA flash estimate, 1 October 2026, Annex A. Index base is the first quarter of 2009, set at 100. Changes are from the previous quarter. Read 2 October 2026.

Fewer sales, and why the 30% figure needs care

URA says sale volume fell by about 30% from the second quarter. Its footnote gives 4,296 sales in the third quarter up to mid-September, against 6,148 in the second quarter. That works out to a fall of 30.1%.

The two numbers do not cover the same length of time. The third-quarter count runs only to mid-September, about two weeks short of the quarter's end. The second-quarter figure of 6,148 is a full-quarter total, matching the 2,141 developer sales, 3,813 resales and 194 sub-sales in URA's full second-quarter release of 24 July 2026. Some of the 30% gap therefore reflects the missing fortnight rather than weaker demand.

A closer comparison is with URA's flash for the second quarter, which counted 5,420 sales up to mid-June. Set against that, the 4,296 sales to mid-September are about 21% lower. URA does not give exact cut-off dates, so this is still approximate, but it points to a slowdown smaller than the headline suggests.

A survey of the industry pointed the other way

The National University of Singapore's Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) runs a quarterly Real Estate Sentiment Index. In the survey for the second quarter, the overall Composite Sentiment Index rose to 5.6 from 4.9, EdgeProp Singapore reported, but The Business Times reported on 24 September 2026 that the current net balance for suburban residential property fell to -14% from 15% in the previous quarter, its first negative reading in more than a year. The future net balance was -5%. For prime residential, the current net balance rose to 9%, while the future net balance was -14%.

A net balance, as The Business Times describes it, is the share of respondents with positive sentiment minus the share with negative sentiment. A reading of -14% means more respondents were negative than positive. EdgeProp Singapore describes the respondents as senior executives in Singapore real estate firms, and the survey includes developers. In the index's terms, "current" refers to the past six months and "future" to the next six.

This is a different kind of measure from URA's index. URA's figures come from prices on actual transactions, drawn from stamp duty submissions and developers' sales data. The survey records how industry executives feel about a segment, it covers the second quarter rather than the third, and its suburban category is not described in the reporting as matching URA's OCR boundary. The two can diverge without either being wrong. Read together, they show suburban prices still rising through mid-September while industry executives had already grown more cautious about them.

Why the flash is provisional

URA compiles the flash from transaction prices submitted for stamp duty and developer sales data up to mid-September. It will update the statistics on 23 October 2026 with its full third-quarter release, and it advises the public to interpret flash estimates with caution because past flash figures have differed from final ones.

The second quarter shows how much they can move. The flash of 1 July put the CCR at +2.0%, the RCR at -1.4%, the OCR at -0.2% and landed homes at +2.6%. The final figures were +1.8%, -1.2%, -0.1% and +2.5%, while the overall 0.5% rise did not change.

Whether a non-resident can buy a private home in Singapore, and on what terms, is covered in the guide Can foreigners buy property in Singapore?

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Limits

This piece reports URA's preliminary third-quarter figures and one second-quarter industry survey as reported by The Business Times. It is not a forecast or a recommendation to buy or sell. Sources were read on 2 October 2026.

Sources

Sources read 2 October 2026.