The amount of stamp duty collected by the Government rose by 45.9 per cent in 2017, with most of the receipts from property transactions, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat revealed on Tuesday (Jul 10).
This is up from the 14.2 per cent increase in stamp duty collected in 2016 and the 6.2 per cent decrease recorded in 2015.
In a written response to a Parliamentary question by MP Gan Thiam Poh, Mr Heng also said that S$2.2 billion in stamp duties have already been collected in the first five months of this year.
He did not provide the value of the stamp duty collected in the previous years.
Stamp duty is payable on instruments which effect a transfer of interest in properties, and stocks or shares in Singapore.
Stamp duties have been in the spotlight this week after the Government announced on Jul 5 surprise cooling measures including tighter loan limits and a hike in Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates for some buyers.
The curbs, the Government said, were part of efforts to “cool the property market and keep price increases in line with economic fundamentals”.
In his written reply on Tuesday, Mr Heng also said that S$2.2 billion in property taxes have been collected in the first five months of the year.
The percentage changes in property tax collection over the last three years are: +4.2 per cent in 2015, -1.3 per cent in 2016 and +0.4 per cent in 2017.
The cooling measures implemented last week came a day after Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon called for caution amid “euphoria” in the property market.
Flash estimates released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that private home prices had jumped by 9.1 per cent year-on-year in the April-to-June period, with analysts predicting that prices could soon recover to 2013 peak levels.
This prompted crowds of potential buyers to flood showflats across Singapore until late into that evening. Several developers even brought their launches forward by a few weeks.
Source: Channel NewsAsia – 10 Jul 2018