Property market stabilising but curbs will stay: Tharman

Property prices in Singapore are starting to stabilise but the Government is not ready to take its foot off the property market brakes, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

"Our intention is to stabilise the market, if possible have some softening of prices," he told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

"Longer term, our intention is to try as best as we can, although it's difficult, to have prices not run away from incomes, which means that on a trend basis, we would like to see some stability in prices relative to median incomes especially."

New HDB ruling on renovation workers

Renovation contractors will be required to hire only certified workers to carry out demolition or hacking works in HDB flats from Jan 1, 2014.

The HDB announced this mandatory requirement yesterday.

It also said that it is collaborating with the BCA Academy to customise a demolition course for renovation workers.

Under existing guidelines, HDB flat owners are required to engage contractors registered with the HDB for any renovation work and they must also obtain HDB's approval before the work begins, particularly if it involves demolition or hacking.

Effects of Jan property curbs unclear: NUS

A paper from the National University of Singapore's Institute of Real Estate Studies (IRES) argues that it is unclear that the seventh instalment of cooling measures announced in January has had the desired impact of mitigating home price inflation.

It based this on an analysis of its Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) series, which tracks prices of completed non-landed private homes excluding executive condos.

Cooling measures for multiple properties starting to bite

The proportion of private housing loan applicants without any outstanding mortgages continued to rise in the first quarter of this year, according to latest figures from Credit Bureau (Singapore). This suggests that the January cooling package, with measures that discouraged multiple property ownership, is starting to bite, analysts say.

CBS data shows that of the 16,208 Singaporeans and permanent residents granted private home mortgages (including refinancing cases) in the first three months of 2013, 65 per cent did not have any outstanding home loans either for an HDB flat or private home.

HDB priority scheme still drawing young families

HDB priority scheme are still drawing married couples with children below 16, capitalising on the Housing Board's recent initiative to help them own a home.

At the latest sales launch in March, first-timer households under the Parenthood Priority Scheme (PPS) applied to take up 32 per cent of the Build-To-Order (BTO) flats on offer, said an HDB spokesman yesterday.

Striking a new balance on flat prices

Striking a new balance between keeping new flats affordable yet fulfilling Singaporeans' desires for their home values to rise, is what the Government is trying to find, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Grace Fu, yesterday.

For decades, new flat prices were pegged to resale ones, so that home owners' asset values would grow, she said.

"If we were selling Build-To-Order flats at a much lower price than resale flats, you would find people turning away from resale and then flat prices would be less able to rise," she explained to Jalan Kayu residents at a dialogue.

First-time buyers support non-central condo prices

Amid the latest official flash estimate showing a slower quarter-on-quarter increase in private home prices in Q1 2013 than in Q4 last year, some property consultants believe that the latest cooling package in January will have a more lingering impact than the six preceding rounds.

However, prices in the widely watched Outside Central Region (OCR), home to suburban condos, are unlikely to fall this year given the strength of the first-time home-buyer pool, say some analysts.

Any fresh HDB curbs will affect new buyers only: Khaw Boon Wan

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday gave the assurance that any fresh curbs that would be introduced to make public housing more affordable - including disallowing the reselling of HDB flats on the open market - would apply only to new buyers, not existing flat owners.

The clarification came after earlier mention of such possible curbs last week unnerved the market and drove property stocks down, as many buyers of private homes are HDB upgraders. Keppel Land, Wing Tai Holdings and City Developments have fallen 2-3.8 per cent while CapitaLand has lost 4.8 per cent.

Two-room HDB flats may not appeal to many singles

Going by the numbers alone, the next launch of two-room Housing Board flats in July could be massively over-subscribed as a result of the recent move to allow singles to buy the units.

Eight in 10 working singles - some 150,000 Singaporeans - are now eligible to buy the smaller flats, which make up only a small fraction of the units launched each year.

But property watchers and singles themselves also say many of those eligible may give the flats a wide berth because of their small sizes and far-flung locations.

Property Agencies spooked by talk of changes to public housing system

HDB Owners Beware! Sell your houses in the resale market now when you still can! Ask me how! **

Alarm and uncertainty are permeating property agencies after National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan floated three suggestions on how he might reboot the public housing system.

While some fear that the changes could cause redundancies in the industry, others worry that they might produce the opposite of the desired result.

On Sunday, Mr Khaw said reverting to the pre-1971 system of allowing flats to be sold back only to the Housing Board, with minimal capital gains, could be one way of bringing down the prices of new flats. He has pledged to reduce these by some 30 per cent.

Singles BTO scheme to benefit 8 in 10

More than 80 per cent of singles above the age of 35 are eligible to buy new Build-to-Order (BTO) flats, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, even as he revealed that the government might look at raising the income cap.

This follows Mr Khaw's announcement on Friday that first-timer singles earning $5,000 or less will be able to buy new two-room flats in non-mature estates directly from the Housing & Development Board (HDB) with effect from the July BTO exercise. The first BTO exercise for singles will be in Sengkang.

Big drop in HDB resale deals as new cooling measures bite

The number of Housing Board resale flats changing hands dropped drastically last month - a sign that the new cooling measures announced at the start of the year are beginning to kick in.

There were around 750 resale deals last month, the lowest activity in any month since the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) started tracking prices in 2007. This is less than half the 1,740 transactions in February last year.

Tax blow for high-end developers

The move to abolish the tax vacancy refund will put more pressure on individuals and companies, particularly those with high-end residential asset portfolios.

This, combined with progressive tax rates which will see the government raising property tax rates for high-end residential homes with the largest increases applying to investment properties, means that high-end developers could potentially be hit with a double whammy.

Higher home taxes unlikely to have big impact: Tharman

The increase in "wealth tax" for high-end homes in this year's Budget will not have significant impact on the property sector here, said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday.

"I don't think (the higher taxes) will impact the property market much, but if it does, it's not such a bad thing - our property taxes are not very high.

"As a permanent state of affairs, we have to find some ways of getting tax revenue for the long term. It's better to tax wealth than to tax income," he said during a Budget forum broadcast live over Channel NewsAsia.

Minister Khaw unveils Woodlands regional hub plans

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday sketched out what Woodlands Regional Centre will be like.

With 100 hectares of space available for development, Woodlands Regional Centre is a key component in reshaping northern Singapore laid out in the recent Land Use plan.

It is expected to serve as a major commercial hub in the north and will take about 15-20 years to fully develop, Mr Khaw said during a community event at Woodlands Ring Road.

Private home sales surged in rush to beat curbs

Private home sales surged 42.8 per cent in January from the month before, as developers dished out discounts and rebates to entice buyers in the wake of the seventh round of cooling measures.

Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), a total of 2,013 transactions were clocked in in January, up from 1,410 in December. This was the highest in four months, and exceeded the 1,799 units launched by developers.

Major shift in planning strategy for housing and transport infrsstructure: Khaw

The Government has made a major shift in the way it provides housing and public transport infrastructure - it will now invest and build well ahead of demand.

Complaints about overcrowding, congestion and the long wait for a Housing Board flat prompted the switch, which National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan described as "a major shift in planning and development strategy".

"We will do our best not to allow population to surge ahead of our infrastructure again," he told Parliament yesterday. "What we must do is to build infrastructure ahead of demand and where possible, we must also build in a buffer so that we can respond to unexpected developments and needs."

Housing Developers Bill gives more teeth to Controller of Housing

The Controller of Housing will be empowered to require developers to disclose any benefits they provide to home buyers - including reimbursements of stamp duty, discounts and vouchers - and to publish the information, under an amendment Bill introduced for first reading in Parliament yesterday.

The move will boost transparency on home prices, say industry players.

This is one of the changes contained in the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) (Amendment) Bill - which will be tabled for its second reading at a future Parliament seating.

Indirect discounts for home buyers under review

Indirect discounts acting as sweeteners to home buyers by developers, to take the sting out of recent property cooling measures, is being reviewed by the Government.

It is concerned that sweeteners such as stamp duty rebates and furniture vouchers cause home prices to be artificially inflated. The Straits Times understands that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is looking into the practice and might act soon, as indirect discounts could make the cooling measures seem ineffective.

Latest Property Cooling measures won't hit banks heavily: Citi Research

The latest property cooling measures is unlikely to impact banks heavily, with mortgage and construction loan demand expected to remain resilient this year, though at a slower growth rate.

This is because data so far since the cooling measures were implemented suggests that demand for property is still strong, Citi Research said in a report yesterday.

It expects the mortgage growth rate to reach 9 per cent this year, compared with 16 per cent last year. It also predicts the growth rate for construction and non-bank financial institution loans to drop only slightly from over 17 per cent to about 15 per cent.