Banks should take into account potentially higher interest rates in their credit assessments and not assume that the current low cost of funds will last indefinitely, the head of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Friday, as he underlined the need to guard against the risks of asset bubbles. "Many parts of Asia in particular are vulnerable to property bubbles, not only because of current...
Market Reports
When the latest property measures were unveiled on Jan 13, it took most market watchers by surprise, mainly because we had been reassured several times that the previous rounds of measures announced on Aug 10 had been effective. Reaction from the local market has been negative but not too severe, as shown in a survey by property blog propwise.sg. Were these new measures necessary? Definitely. At the...
Government measures are most effective when they are unexpected. That was why I concluded last week that the single most effective move was not the measures themselves but the timing of their introduction. In economics, this topic is covered under the expectations theory. If the market expects the announcement, players will take positions that will nullify some of its effectiveness. Looking at the latest...
While the Government has to act to prevent the property market from getting beyond the reach of most Singaporeans, I am however not very comfortable that the latest steps - announced last week - are the best means of dealing with the issue. Not only are the measures fairly drastic, they appear to be dealing more with curbing demand than raising supply. The Government has claimed that there is no shortage...
Once living in the shadow of their inner-city and city fringe cousins, suburban residential properties are now stepping out on their own - with some of these properties located in more remote areas only accessible by feeder buses and light rail transit (LRT). And property experts say such mass market homes remain in high demand from owner-occupiers, who are unscathed by the new round of cooling measures...
In a survey conducted at property blog www.propwise.sg, 66 per cent of the 269 respondents believe that the latest round of cooling measures by the Government is sufficiently harsh to prevent a property market bubble in Singapore, while the other 34 per cent do not think so. Some 41 per cent of the respondents believe that property prices will go down this year as a result of the measures, a sharp...
Sales of new private homes totalled 1,332 units last month, down 583 units from November, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said yesterday. Inclusive of executive condominiums, or ECs, the total number of units sold amounted to 1,699 units. This is a sharp fall compared to November, when new private home sales including ECs numbered 2,092 units. But experts said the fall was seasonal in nature,...
Sales of private home properties moderated in December, but still came in above the 1,000 units level. Data released on Monday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) shows that 1,332 private homes were sold last month. That is a 30 per cent on-month drop from the 1,915 units sold in the previous month. Including Executive Condominiums, the total sales would have reached an even higher figure of...
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the latest property cooling measures were not meant to crash the market. He described them as "calibrated", "targeted" and "pre-emptive". Mr Mah was speaking to reporters at a community event on Saturday. Explaining the government's rationale for the recently announced property cooling measures, Mr Mah said a judgement call was needed when property prices...
With the latest round of Government measures, there might be concerns among first-time home buyers, those looking to upgrade their properties as well as property investors on how they will be impacted. Let me share my views: First-Time Home Buyers and Property Upgraders For first-time home buyers, you need not worry as these measures do not impact you directly. You will still be able to obtain loans of...