I read with interest an article published today on Sunday Times, 22nd February 2009, Keen to cash in on mortgage sales? Quoting from the article,

... potential buyers are "coming in floods", asking to be on her company's list or calling about properties on offer. ... but it is very difficult for us to strike a deal because the buyers are putting in very low offers. They want to go only for a killing...

looks like the current economic crisis have lured out these buyers, waiting to pounce on distressed fire sales. Though prices had came down recently from the peak, I do wonder whether these prices are reasonably cheap, even under a fire sale? A picture tells a thousand words A picture tells a thousand words, so 4 pictures should tell an even better story: *2008's GDP growth and GDP are taken from advance estimates. src: The data for Singapore GDP comes from www.singstat.gov.sg; STI index from finance.yahoo.com; HDB resale price index from www.hdb.gov.sg; private property price index from www.ura.gov.sg I compile 4 graphs into one above, trying my best to align them in the same time line I could. The graphs are, from top down, Singapore GDP and growth, STI index, HDB resale price index and private property price index. Indicated on the graphs are 4 red lines, each indicating the 4 significant events affecting Singapore's economy, namely Asia Financial Crisis, Dot Com bubble burst, September 11th terrorist attack in the US and SARS crisis. From the graphs, I found the following:

1. Property prices (both private & HDB) are much higher now than during each of the 4 crisis.
2. GDP growth is badly hit during each of the 4 crisis and Singapore entered into recession (-ve growth) during 2 of the them, Asia financial crisis and SARS.
3. V-shaped GDP growth recovery seems to mark the bottom of the property prices, around beginning of 1999 and during the period from 1Q02 to 1Q05.
4. No conclusion to be drawn for relationship between property prices peak and GDP growth. Read more...