Singapore's private home sales jumped in March

Developers in Singapore sold 2, 793 new units of private homes, excluding executive condominiums, in March, according to statistics released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Monday.

The number is more than four times of that in February.

The increase came despite the government announced its latest round of cooling measures in early January this year.

The number of units sold in the downtown area, known as "the city," dipped slightly to 157 units, while 1,814 units of new private homes located in the suburbs were sold in March.

About 80 percent of the resident population in Singapore live in comfortable and spacious public housing flats built and sold by the government, while the private home market is typically high- end. It is estimated that about 24 percent of housing units were developed by private developers.

Statistics released by the Singapore Real Estate Exchange earlier showed that the resale prices of private homes in Singapore dropped by two percent in March compared to February.