Last Thursday, Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Ravi Menon mentioned at the annual report media conference that it is “not time yet to ease the cooling measures”, “they remain necessary” and “easing the measures now would send a wrong signal”. Sorry, cooling measures are to stay Menon cited two reasons for the decision: 1) Good pick-up of … [Read more...]
3 reasons why adjustments to property measures is not a good sign
Last Friday, a press release was jointly issued by Ministry of National Development, Ministry of Finance and Monetary Authority of Singapore to make adjustments to the Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) and Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) framework, with effect from 11 March 2017. 1) The holding period liable for SSD is revised from 4 to 3 years. There is also a 4 percent … [Read more...]
Should Singaporeans be grateful for property cooling measures?
Singapore’s Second Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong said in a Bloomberg TV interview that the government hasn’t “made any movement in the budget” to relax the property cooling measures because “demand remains very resilient” and “property volume in terms of transactions have increased and not decreased”. Sacrificing housing affordability for foreign … [Read more...]
Trust is a scarce commodity in properties
In properties, market confidence determines the boom and doom of the industry. To property buyers and investors, trust can make or break a deal. In this digital world, trust is more valued than ever. Unfortunately, trust is increasingly rare to be found in industry stakeholders and the mass media. Have something up your sleeve? It is interesting to see how the … [Read more...]
Are additional buyer stamp duties necessary?
The Singapore government just announced additional buyer stamp duties (ABSD) to be imposed on foreign and multi-property buyers effective December 8, 2011. 1st time foreign buyers have to pay an additional 10 percent ABSD. Singaporeans buying 3rd property and PRs buying 2nd property have to pay 3 percent more on ABSD. This is on top of the inflated seller stamp duties … [Read more...]