Price rises in the stars for singapore property?

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Rising prices could be in the stars for Singapore's property market, according to new research, which reveals that the Year of the Goat is good news for real estate.

A study from HSR reveals that there are some surprising patterns in the Singapore residential property market in relation to the Chinese Zodiac sign.

The report compared annual Change in URA’s Private Residential Property Price Index against the respective Chinese Zodiac Year for the past 36 years or 3 cycles of the Zodiac.

2015 marks the start of the Year of the Goat, in which house prices tend to rise on average by 8 per cent, according to the research. This rise, though, is below the year of the Dragon (10 per cent), Pig (18 per cent), Monkey (25 per cent) and Rooster (41 per cent).

The most consistent price rises are found in the Dragon, Rooster and Pig, says HSR. Prices tend to fall, on the other hand, in the year of the Ox.

Rents tend to rise in the years of the Dragon, Rat and Pig, and tend to fall in the years of the Ox and Horse.

The Chinese New Year also impacts the sales market too, with more resale transactions recorded in the periods shortly before and after the 15 days of Chinese New Year.

"People tend to complete transactions before Chinese New Year to start the new year afresh," says HSR.

There are also more real estate salespersons born in the year of the Dragon, Tiger and Goat in HSR’s Top 30 List than in the other years.

While all this may sound like superstition, though, buyers in China can be supersititous about their property transactions. Indeed, some consider 8 to be an auspicious number as it sounds similar to the Chinese word for "prosper" and 4 to be an unlucky number as it sounds like the word which means "death".

Given a choice, therefore, many Chinese prefer to live on the 8th storey and not on the 4th. As a result, a house on the 8th storey could cost up to 3.7 per cent more than one on the 4th storey.