Tag Archives: IAS

S’pore govt acts to cool property market

Singapore’s Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan has just announced measures for a ‘stable and sustainable property market’.

Among other things, his Ministry will resume selling land under the confirmed list in the first half of next year. Such land sales were suspended in October last year in the aftermath of the global financial crash. The Government will also include sites for executive condos, a hybrid between public and private housing, in the confirmed list to offer more housing choices.

Secondly, the Government is banning interest absorption scheme (IAS) and interest-only housing loans (IOL) with immediate effect, i.e. Sept 14, 2009. This measure will apply to all private residential projects. The only exception will be uncompleted private residential projects where units had already been offered for sale under IAS before Sept 14.

Interest-only housing loans will be disallowed with immediate effect. ‘These schemes could encourage property speculation in a buoyant market where prices are rising rapidly, as they are forms of housing loans that entirely eliminate or substantially lower regular instalment payments for property purchasers in the first few years before the properties are completed,’ a statement by the government said. Continue reading