Category Archives: Government

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Although Lim declined to provide an estimate on how much correction is needed before the property curbs are withdrawn, CapitaLand forecasted in February that a five to 10 percent drop in home prices could goad the authorities to act.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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980 buildings exempted from property tax

Posted on 2 Jun 2014 | Comments Off on 980 buildings exempted from property tax

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) granted full or partial property tax exemptions to 980 buildings in 2013 from 650 buildings in 2000, according to media reports.

Uncollected taxes from these buildings reached around $94 million last year compared to $25 million previously. This translates to about $96,000 for each property versus the $38,400 seen 14 years ago.

These figures imply the steep increase in exempted taxes was caused by higher property values rather than more exemption grants, said PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail.

“In the last decade or so, property prices have gone up multifold… with values driven up by demand and supply, and the increase in population.”

“We are land scarce, and those who want land have to constantly compete with someone who is willing to pay top dollar, so there will be an increase in land prices, and as land prices go up, so will property values and the taxable amounts,” he added.

Under the law, there are two types of properties eligible for tax exemption namely, places of religious worship and buildings “fulfilling purposes conducive to social development.”

The former includes churches and mosques, while the second category is “limited to public facilities that directly benefit the public at large,” said an IRAS representative. But due to confidentiality, the agency cannot name these tax-exempt buildings.

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Posted in Government, Tax Matters / Property Tax

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