Singapore's property sector, which has benefited from rising home prices and loose monetary policy in recent years, could face stronger headwinds in 2014, say analysts. 2013 has turned out to be a challenging year for property stocks. Apart from concerns about household leverage and effects of the pullback in US stimulus measures, the property market has been hit by further cooling measures,...
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National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has said that while the property cycle cannot be completely eliminated, the government can try to keep housing bubbles "less bubbly" by intervening. Writing on his Facebook page on Monday, Mr Khaw said that is the right thing to do, even if it may make some developers and home sellers unhappy. Ireland's property prices peaked in 2007 in tandem with a...
New housing policies are showing results, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. In his ministry's blog post on Thursday, Mr Khaw said ramping up the construction of Build-To-Order flats, and introducing the Parenthood Priority Scheme (PPS) and Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) are meant to help the young meet their aspirations as soon as they are ready to do so. Mr Khaw said...
Now that the United States Federal Reserve has announced its long-awaited tapering of its stimulus, the 800-pound gorilla is removed and investors will likely re-enter the housing market here. Singapore’s private residential market has been lethargic for the past six months after the US central bank in May flagged its intention to unwind its extraordinary stimulus efforts. Investors who have been...
The government is scaling back the supply of land for residential development in the first half of next year, a move that analysts said made sense in light of the softening market and the large supply of homes already being developed. The Ministry of National Development (MND) said yesterday seven residential sites and one mixed-development land parcel — mainly located away from the central region —...
The location of several sites in the upcoming government land sales programme could put pressure on some developers, especially those with unsold private residential units or yet-to-be launched projects in the area -- this is according to some property analysts. Market watchers told Channel NewsAsia some developers may have to cut prices to move sales. The private residential market will see a...
The latest survey of HDB residents who were offered the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) showed continued strong support for the scheme. Of the 628 households from five projects who participated in the survey, 87 percent expressed support for SERS. Most of the residents surveyed were happy that SERS allowed them to continue living in the same estate close to their long-time...
The government will be releasing eight confirmed list sites and 15 reserve list sites under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme for the first half of next year. The sites can yield up to 11,600 private residential units, including 2,800 executive condominium (EC) units, and 193,000 square metres (sqm) gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space. The number of units for the first half of next...
Developers will likely moderate their bids for the two executive condominium (EC) sites in Choa Chu Kang Grove that were released for sale yesterday, as recent changes to the rules governing the hybrid private-public housing scheme are expected to hit demand from upgraders. The adjacent sites with identical areas of 177,120 sq feet, released under the Confirmed List of the Government Land Sales...
There have been fewer sales in the Singapore property auction market. A total of 19 properties went under the hammer this year compared to 24 transactions in 2012. However, the total sales value chalked up this year was higher at about S$92 million compared to S$62.4 million last year. Overall, there were 488 properties that were put up for sale by all auction houses in 2013. Those figures are...