Property cooling measures timely: Wing Tai
The measures announced by the government on Monday to cool the property market were timely as prices had gone up to unsustainable levels, according to real estate developer Wing Tai Holdings. Mr Edmund Cheng, Wing Tai’s deputy chairman who said this on Friday at the launch of its luxury project Belle Vue Residences, added that … Read more
Cooling the property market, flexibly
THE Singapore government has acted swiftly and decisively in introducing new and tougher rules to dampen property speculation – the third time in a year that the authorities have moved to cool an overheating market. Among the many changes announced earlier this week are a requirement for HDB resale flat buyers to sell off any … Read more
Has the market reached its peak?
Property index climbs mere 0.1% in July The prices of completed condominiums and apartments showed early signs of stabilising in July from the peak levels recorded in previous months. This is according to the latest reading of the Singapore Residential Property Index (SRPI) developed by the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Real Estate Studies. … Read more
S’pore home prices up the most
Singapore private property prices has increased by 34 per cent, claimed a global survey of house prices conducted by the Global Property Guide. This is the fastest in the world for the year 2010 to June 30, and also the highest recorded year-on-year increase in the country since 1995, according to Global Property Guide. Hong … Read more
Keeping bubble trouble in check
CAUTIOUS and calibrated, or potentially excessive? Reactions to the government’s latest package of measures to cool a frothy property market have touched both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, observers are generally agreed that the curbs announced on Monday – the third wave of measures in 11 months – amount to a careful, … Read more
Sustainable property market is the goal
New govt measures won’t affect genuine buyers: Lim Hwee Hua THE latest slew of government measures to temper the property market is ultimately meant to build up a ‘sustainable’ market and will not affect genuine buyers, said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport, Lim Hwee Hua. ‘What … Read more
Developers may postpone condo launches
PROPERTY developers are widely expected to delay their new launches, now that buying sentiment is likely to be hard hit by the slew of market-cooling measures. The Government announced new rules on Monday that strongly discouraged speculation on homes, such as extending a seller’s stamp duty from one year to three years. The measures also … Read more
Property: Taming market gyrations
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 … Read more
Private home-owners can’t play HDB chip any more
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 … Read more
Govt keeps heavy guns aside, but who will take a hit?
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? … Read more
