The latest round of property cooling measures may have caught the market by surprise with its speed and severity, with an analyst describing it as "a sledgehammer to kill a fly". However, the warning signs were there: High land prices, a jump in the number of new housing loans, and a wage growth lagging behind economic expansion were some of the red flags which prompted the authorities to take...

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale market could see a slight increase in interest from buyers hard-pressed to buy a private property after new cooling measures were introduced last week, but the overall demand is unlikely to be substantial enough to make much of an impact on the market, analysts said. In a surprise announcement on Jul 5, the Government raised Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty...

Three families who are unrelated have sold adjacent bungalows collectively at a price of S$37.89 million. The bungalows are located in District 15 Lorong H Telok Kurau. The freehold bungalows are single-storey and together have 24,050 sq ft land area. Taking into account the development charges payable the developer would have to bear land rate of S$1,132 psf ppr. If the 10% balcony bonus is taken...

The local property market will see some slowing on the back of surprise cooling measures though a crash is unlikely, said the top executives from some of Singapore’s biggest developers. However, the chief financial officers of GuocoLand Group and CapitaLand Group differed on whether the Government’s latest step, which involved tweaks to Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates for both buyers and...

The local construction sector, which has been showing signs of bottoming out, could find itself on shaky ground again following the latest property cooling measures, some economists said. Advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Friday (Jul 13) showed the industry shrunk by 4.4 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, as weakness in private sector construction activities...

According to market sources, Allianz is understood to have entered into a lease at ASB Tower, the new development coming up on the former CPF Building site in Robinson Road, at a gross signing rental of around S$11.50 per square foot (psf) a month. The deal is said to reflect a gross effective rent of close to S$10 psf a month after taking into account the rent-free period and other...

Marina One Residences is part of a landmark mixed-use development (Marina One) at an enviable location at Marina South – a district designated as a high growth area to establish a global business and financial hub by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. Be at the heart of the city and centre of it all. With links to four out of six major MRT lines and expressways, Marina One Residences is...

The high-end property segment will likely be more affected by the latest round of cooling measures compared with mass-market projects, industry insiders said. Buyers and investors hoping for private home prices to drop sharply due to the measures will not be seeing that happen in the near term, as developers said that they are not going to cut prices massively. Mr Richard Lai, group chief financial...

New laws allowing for Airbnb-style stays are unlikely to come any time soon. The reasons include the "mixed views" given in a recently concluded public consultation and the global trend showing that such short-term stays raise rents and home prices, said Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong in Parliament yesterday. "We are studying the matter carefully," Mr Wong said of an ongoing review...

More than 2,000 reports of unauthorised short-term stays in residential units were received by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) between 2015 to 2017, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said in Parliament on Wednesday (Jul 11). Of these, 1,808 were in private homes and 390 in Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats. Mr Wong was responding to questions in Parliament on short-term...