PROPERTY tycoons and Temasek Holdings have taken the biggest battering from the Government’s introduction of measures designed to prevent future dramatic price swings in the residential property market.
The paper losses incurred by the eight biggest tycoons as a result of the raft of market-calming measures announced yesterday – City Developments’ (CDL) Mr Kwek Leng Beng included – amounted to nearly $700 million.
And Temasek Holdings suffered a total paper loss in share value of some $396 million, after the valuation of its stake in CapitaLand fell at a stroke by $267 million and that of Keppel Land by $129 million.
Together, the tycoons and Temasek Holdings had to brave a total paper loss of some $1.1 billion, as traders stampeded out of the market on news that the Government was going to stop allowing developers from absorbing interest payments on loans extended to buyers of flats that are still being built.
It is also barring interest-only mortgages for uncompleted housing projects, and is pushing for more sites to be sold.
Among the tycoons, Mr Kwek – whose family controls 49 per cent of giant developer CDL – saw the heftiest loss on paper.
With CDL plunging 84 cents or 7.6 per cent to $10.24, the paper loss worked out to $328 million. Continue reading
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