Category Archives: Cooling Measures

Govt unlikely to remove curbs soon

Posted on 3 Jun 2014 | Comments Off on Govt unlikely to remove curbs soon

Home prices are likely to fall further before the government rolls back the property cooling measures which were imposed since 2009, according to Standard Chartered in media reports.

“You would start to take away some of these measures if price growth reaches a certain level of equilibrium,” said the bank’s CEO for ASEAN, Lim Cheng Teck. However, he believes this is not the case yet.

Chesterton Singapore’s Managing Director Donald Han also holds a similar view: “It’s still too early to remove curbs. The government will monitor but their fingers won’t be pressing any buttons at this point in time.”

Although Lim declined to provide an estimate on how much correction is needed before the property curbs are withdrawn, CapitaLand forecasted in February that a five to 10 percent drop in home prices could goad the authorities to act.

Based on statistics, private home prices in Singapore dropped 1.3 percent in Q1 2014, its biggest decline since June 2009, following a 0.9 percent dip in the previous quarter.

Property curbs implemented in the past five years include the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD), lower loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, seller’s stamp duty (SSD), higher levies on foreign buyers and the total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) framework.

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Posted in Cooling Measures, Government, Loan / Mortgage / Finance, Property Market / Real Estate, Tax Matters / Property Tax

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Govt may further trim confirmed list supply: experts

Posted on 2 Jun 2014 | Comments Off on Govt may further trim confirmed list supply: experts

Majority of property consultants polled by the media expect the government to further reduce land supply for private housing development in the confirmed list in the upcoming H2 2014 Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme, given the sharp decline in home sales as well as the substantial supply pipeline.

Most of them believe that the reserve list will continue to account for the bulk of private housing land supply in H2 2014.

In the first half of the year, the Ministry of National Development (MND) is releasing land for almost 7,000 homes, including 605 executive condominium (EC) units, via the reserve list.

With this, property consultants expect the same level of overall supply for the reserve list in the second half, although most expect the supply of ECs to be higher, at about 1,000 units.

In the confirmed list, the MND is releasing for 4,630 homes, including 2,165 ECs, in the first half. The quantum forecast is lower for H2 at around 2,000 to 4,400 (including ECs).

DTZ’s Research Head Lee Lay Keng expects the number to range from 3,500 to 4,000 units, including 1,900 to 2,200 EC units.

Desmond Sim, CBRE Research Singapore Head predicts that the authorities would not offer any ECs on the confirmed list and around 1,000 on the reserve list, while JLL National Director Ong Teck Hui expect the supply to decline by 10 percent from H1 to around 8,000 private homes, 6,000 on the reserve list and 2,000 on the confirmed list.

On the contrary, Tan Tiong Cheng, Executive Chairman at Knight Frank, said the government may opt not to change the current supply numbers in both the confirmed and reserve list.

“If the authorities are looking to begin rolling back some of the property cooling measures at some point in the second half of this year, they don’t need to be over-generous by scaling back the GLS Programme as well,” he said.

“Otherwise, if there is a sudden surge in demand from fence-sitters if, say, the ABSD (additional buyer’s stamp duty) is reduced or removed, developers and agents may tell potential buyers: There’s no new supply coming, so you’d better buy from me.”

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Posted in Cooling Measures, Government, Land Sales

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