The curbs imposed by the government from 2009 to 2013 have not only controlled the property bubble, they were also an important complement to monetary policy, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon in media reports.
However, as they were introduced during a “highly unusual situation”, they will not be a permanent feature of policy and will only be implemented from time to time.
The eight rounds of property cooling measures include limiting the maximum loan tenure at 35 years, pegging the total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) at 60 percent, and capping the property-related exposure of banks at 35 percent of their overall lending.
For mortgages with tenures of less than 30 years, the loan-to-value (LTV) ratios were fixed at 80 percent for the first loan, 50 percent for the second and 40 percent for the third. For mortgages payable over 30 years, the LTV ratios were reduced to 60 percent, 30 percent and 20 percent respectively.
Interestingly, Singapore was one of the pioneers of such initiatives, introducing them as early 1996. Asian countries with similar existing measures are China, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
The city-state also introduced fiscal measures, such as buyer stamp duties of three to 18 percent and seller stamp duties of four to 16 percent, because the aforementioned macroprudential measures may not be enough to control loan growth and asset price increases.
“These are essentially transaction taxes that aim to curb the speculative flipping of properties,” added Menon.
Source : PropertyGuru
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