SINGAPORE - Resale prices for private homes fell in all regions in March as the property market continued to slow down, with the central region being the worst hit.

Prices fell 1.1 per cent overall last month from the month before, according to Singapore Residential Price Index flash estimates released on Monday.

This followed a 0.9 per cent slide from January to February, worse than a previously estimated 0.4 per cent decline.

Private homes in the central region bore the brunt, with resale prices tumbling 1.3 per cent in March after dipping 0.2 per cent in February from the preceding month.

In the outskirts, prices sank 1 per cent last month on the heels of a 1.5 per cent drop the month before.

These figures exclude small shoebox units. The resale prices of these compact private homes lost 0.4 per cent from February to March after falling 0.7 per cent from January to February.

The shoebox segment now has a bigger impact on the resale price index after the National University of Singapore (NUS), which compiles the index, revised its structure in February. Shoebox homes account for 3.9 per cent of the nearly 79,000 units that NUS now tracks, up from 1.3 per cent of about 74,000 units before the revision.