THE just-announced seller’s stamp duty, which will be imposed on all residential lands and homes bought before Saturday and sold within a year, will not apply to Housing Board flats, said the Government on Friday.

This is because HDB flats are already subject to a minimum one-year occupation ruling.

The Government said the new tax measure is to ‘discourage short-term speculative activity that could distort underlying prices’, and it is not targeted at the purchase of properties for owner-occupation or longer term investment.

Loans granted by the HDB for its flats, including the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), will still continue to be capped at 90 per cent because they are subject to other criteria to prevent speculation and encourage financial prudence, said the Government.

HDB loans are offered to only eligible first-time flat buyers or second-timers who are upgrading. And they are required to use all of their CPF Ordinary Account balance before HDB would give them the loans, which is in line with HDB’s home ownership policy of helping eligible buyers, especially first-time buyers, to purchase public housing in a financially prudent manner.

But for all other housing loans provided by financial institutions regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, they will be capped at 80 per cent of the property purchase price, instead of the current 90 per cent, from Saturday.

Source : Straits Times – 19 Feb 2010

The Government has introduced two new measures to cool the property market and pre-empt a bubble from forming in the private homes sector. They come into effect Saturday.

The Ministry of National Development said this will help ensure a stable and sustainable property market, and to curtail the HDB resale market where prices tend to track private property movements.

From Saturday, it will be more difficult and expensive for speculators to own and flip properties. A Seller’s Stamp Duty will be imposed on all residential properties and residential land bought after Friday, and sold within one year from the date of purchase.

The housing loan limit will also be capped at 80 per cent – down from the current 90 per cent.

This new loan limit will apply to all housing loans granted by financial institutions for private homes, executive condominiums, HUDC flats and HDB flats, including those sold under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme. But loans granted by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) for flats, will still have a cap of 90 per cent.

Last September, the Government introduced anti-speculative measures to cool the private homes market. While these helped initially, there were signs the market was heating up again.

The new measures come as demand for private homes continues to soar. The number of units sold by developers in January was three times more than December. It was also the highest monthly total since September last year.

The Ministry said the objective of these measures is to discourage short-term speculative activity that could distort underlying prices. It is not targeted at the purchase of properties for owner occupation or longer term investment.

Market watchers said the measures are easiest to implement, without causing the market to come to a standstill.

Eugene Lim, associate director, ERA Asia Pacific said: “We are recovering. The economy is recovering and the market is picking up so what they want to do is to make sure the property market is moving up in tune together with the economy and not faster than the economic recovery.”

Analysts added that the prices and volume of private property homes are unlikely to be significantly impacted.

Donald Han, managing director, Cushman & Wakefield said: “It has got a fairly minimal impact to the market, mainly because a lot of investors from our records are buying for the medium term, at least for a period of two to three years.

“Some investors will probably stand by the sidelines and see how sales progress into February and March. It will take some wind out of the market; potentially it could be around 10-15 per cent in terms of the numbers of new home sales taken out of the equation.”

The Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore said the reduced mortgage cap is unlikely to have significant impact on genuine buyers and investors, as lending institutions have already been more prudent in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 19 Feb 2010

M&C to convert Copthorne Orchid Hotel into condos

Posted by luxuryasiahome on February 20, 2010

But agents’ association criticises Office for Fair Trading report, says stricter rules are needed to protect customers

BRITAIN’S housing market needs a shake-up to give the public a better deal but there is no requirement for better regulation of estate agents, the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) said on Thursday.

A year-long OFT study into the housing market concluded that a lack of competition for traditional estate agents was an issue, but said existing measures to govern their activities were sufficient.

However, it advised customers to shop around and haggle over agents’ fees, estimating that a failure to do so could be costing house sellers up to £pounds;570 million (S$1.24 billion) a year.

A body which represents estate agents said the OFT report was disappointing and that tighter rules were needed to protect customers.

The OFT study said the law should be changed to make it easier for other providers to enter the housing market, in particular through online services. This would have a ‘dramatic’ impact on the cost of buying or selling a home, it said. But there should only be regulation where it was necessary to protect consumers.

‘In the present economic climate, it is more important than ever that people get a good deal when buying or selling a home,’ said John Fingleton, the OFT’s chief executive. ‘Encouraging new business models, online estate agents and private seller platforms could put useful competitive pressure on traditional models and lead to better value for buyers and sellers.’

It rejected tighter controls of estate agents, saying overall satisfaction with them had risen in recent years. A recent OFT survey found 88 per cent of buyers and sellers were happy with agents, up from just over 70 per cent in 2004.

While a third of those who used traditional estate agents thought the fees they paid represented poor value for money, 64 per cent did not negotiate a lower commission rate.

However, the OFT did say that there was need for more regulation governing fees received by agents for referring customers to companies providing extra services such as mortgage advice and surveys.

‘The OFT believes this could cause an estate agent to favour one buyer over another, to the seller’s disadvantage,’ it said.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) which has around 10,000 members, said the OFT had ‘categorically failed to see that better regulation’ of the market was required.

‘Buying a home is often the largest single transaction of a person’s life and it is disappointing that the OFT has not thought it appropriate to acknowledge that a robust and appropriate level of consumer protection is needed,’ he said.

‘The NAEA would like to see a greater level of regulation to ensure that professional, qualified estate agents are not confused with agents that, all too often, fail to meet the basic professional standards we would expect from our members.’

Source : Business Times – 20 Feb 2010