SINGAPORE, July 4 — Singapore finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said he expects property prices to fall further, three days after data showed home values in the city-state dropped for a third consecutive quarter.

“I don’t think the cycle is over,” Shanmugaratnam said today at a conference hosted by DBS Group Holdings Ltd in Singapore. “I think further correction would not be unexpected.”

The Singapore government has taken steps since 2009 to curb speculation in the property market. An index tracking private residential prices in Singapore fell 1.1 per cent to 209.3 points in the three months ended June 30, following a 1.3 per cent decline in the previous three-month period, according to preliminary data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on July 1.

Among measures introduced to cool the property market, lenders must consider a borrower’s debt when granting mortgages, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in June, 2013. Home loans should not lead to a borrower’s total debt-servicing ratio rising above 60 per cent of his or her income, it said. — Bloomberg