The property market in 2014 starts with a series of bad news from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB). How bad are the numbers? On 2nd January, HDB announced that the HDB Resale Price Index continued to drop in 4th quarter 2013. The 1.3 per cent decline was the worst since eight years ago in 2005. Coincidentally, URA released disappointing estimated figures of private home sales in 4th quarter 2013. Private residential Property Price Index fell 0.8 percent — the first major decline since the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009. Even the usually resilient landed home market had its price index dropped 1.2 percent from the previous quarter. Overall, luxury homes were the worst performer with prices fell by 2.1 percent last year. Residential units sold in the prime districts were down 20 percent compared with 2012. In ......