Figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority show that private home prices rose for the 11th consecutive quarter, but the increase last quarter was significantly slower than the 3.8% increase in the previous quarter.

The increase for the whole of last year was also smaller than the previous year's 10.6 per cent.

Private landed property prices slowed to 0.6 per cent in the last quarter; non-landed private property price increases also narrowed to 0.3 per cent, and rose by 9.6 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively for the year.

Non-landed private property prices in the core Central District rose by 0.7% last quarter, while those in the other Central Districts rose by 3.1% and those outside the Central Districts fell by 2.6%, with annual increases ranging from 4.8% to 9.7%.

On the rental side, rental growth slowed to 7.4% quarter-on-quarter in the last quarter, while the annual increase widened significantly to 29.7%.

Sales volume last year was lower than the year before, mainly due to a lack of new private residential units being launched, especially in the suburbs," said Sun Yanqing, Vice President of Industrial Research and Consulting at Orange Ease. Also prices in some areas have written record highs, so this, coupled with the fact that there was a new round of cooling measures last year, has affected the purchasing power of some buyers."