SINGAPORE, April 1 — Singapore’s home prices dropped for a sixth consecutive quarter, the longest losing streak in more than a decade, as tighter mortgage curbs cooled demand in Asia’s second-most expensive housing market.

An index tracking private residential prices fell 1.1 per cent in the three months ended March 31, matching the longest stretch of declines since March 2004, according to preliminary data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Wednesday. The URA changed the method it uses to calculate the property index from last quarter to better reflect the property market, it said in the statement.

Residential prices fell four per cent in 2014, the URA figures showed, the first year-on-year decline since 2008, as the government’s five-year campaign to rein in property values curbed demand. The drop is more prolonged than during the global financial crisis, when prices slid for four consecutive quarters, from the middle of 2008 to mid-2009.

The government began introducing residential property curbs in 2009 as low interest rates and demand from foreign buyers raised concerns that the market was overheating. They have included a cap on debt repayment costs at 60 per cent of a borrower’s monthly income, higher stamp duties on home purchases and an increase in real estate taxes.

Apartment prices fell 0.6 per cent in prime districts in the first quarter, the data showed. Those in the suburbs dropped 0.9 per cent. Prices in areas near prime districts slipped 1.8 per cent.

The new method to calculate the index will switch to using five quarters of fixed weights compared to a 12-quarter moving average and will adopt a new base period from the first quarter of 2009, URA said.

Developers sold 382 units in February, 48 per cent fewer than a year earlier, according to previously released URA data. — Bloomberg