Developers are widely expected to delay their new launches, now that buying sentiment is likely to be hit by the market-cooling measures. The Government announced new rules on Monday that strongly discouraged speculation on homes. Some analysts said that the changes could dent sales, especially for new launches in the mass-market segment. DMG and Partners property analyst Brandon Lee said the measures...
Market Reports
THE property market control measures announced yesterday were not the strongest weapons that could be deployed. In an extreme situation, reviving a property capital gains tax pegged, say, to a five-year sliding scale, would rank high as an option. It is 'neat'. Speculators and investors alike would be left in no doubt that real estate cannot be permitted to develop into a casino play when home ownership is...
String of steps to douse speculation; prices and sales of mass-market private homes may be hit The Prime Minister had hinted on Sunday that major moves were afoot to cool the property market. Even so, when the Ministry of National Development (MND) spelt out the measures yesterday, several market-watchers did a double-take. Many of them expect private home prices and sales to be hit. Of all of MND's new...
THE government has just announced the latest instalment in its gentle therapy of a series of calibrated measures to try and rein in the acceleration in home prices. Is this strategy working? Or should we revisit the sledgehammer approach of May 1996 when a whole slew of anti-speculation measures were rolled out at one go? Thus far, the measures introduced since September last year do not seem to have had...
BARELY seven months after the Government imposed stamp duty for residential property sellers, the policy is being tweaked to further quell speculation. Experts say that while this measure might increase costs for short-term speculators, it would have a limited impact on genuine long-term investors. The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced yesterday that stamp duty will be imposed on those who...
IF YOU already have a mortgage on a home, you will need more cash on hand to buy a second property - under new rules announced yesterday. Buyers with one or more outstanding housing loans will now have to stump up a downpayment of 30 per cent of the property's price, up from 20 per cent previously. At least 10 per cent must be in cash - up from 5 per cent before - but the remainder can come from their...
The first two rounds of "cooling" measures did not do the trick. Yesterday, the Government moved for the third time in less than 12 months to take the sizzle out of a red-hot property market, with the promise of more curbs if the situation demands. While the measures - which include making second home buyers pay more cash and allowing them to borrow less from banks - are "not unfamiliar", as real estate...
The much-awaited third round of cooling measures were finally announced yesterday but with a big difference - the current set have a lot more bite than the earlier ones, which were largely symbolic. Of the measures, the 70-per-cent cap on loan-to-property-value for second mortgages is the most significant as it addresses for the first time the problem of excessive liquidity in the market. Helping to soak...
Market watchers said the new rules requiring private property owners to sell their homes within six months of buying an HDB flat will go some way in cooling the red-hot resale market. New rules on second home loans may also moderate demand somewhat. Some analysts expect the rules restricting dual home ownership to have an "almost immediate" impact on resale demand. Chris Koh, director of Dennis Wee...
Market watchers are not surprised by the government's move on Monday to cool the housing market, and some even said that it is long overdue. On average, analysts expect the latest measures to dampen private home sales by about 20 per cent for the rest of the year. And developers may also hold back on new launches, and turn to preview sales instead. The relaxation of some housing policies will make...