Singapore’s home curbs may stay for some time: Minister

Bloomberg

Singapore’s residential property curbs
are expected to stay for some time as the city-state’s economy remains stable and demand is still “very resilient,” Nati-
onal Development Minister Lawrence Wong said.
Singapore home prices fell 3 percent
in 2016, with prices declining for the 13th straight quarter in the last three months
of the year for the longest streak since
data was first published in 1975. Still,
Singapore house sales last year topped 2015’s tally as a third straight year of price declines stoked pent-up demand from homebuyers.
The cooling measures “have helped to achieve a soft landing in the property
market,” Wong, who’s also the second finance minister, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Haslinda Amin. “If you look at the market today, demand remains very resilient.”
Singapore’s government has been steadfast in its commitment to cool the housing market, maintaining real estate curbs rolled out since 2009, with some of the strictest measures implemented in 2013. The government has repeatedly signaled it is reluctant to ease property curbs, including capping debt repayments at 60 percent of a borrower’s income and higher stamp duties, as it wants to avoid overheating the market again.
Singapore’s residential property curbs are set to stay in place for at least another year amid signs the city’s housing market is stabilizing, the chief executive officer
of CapitaLand Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest developer said in an interview earlier this month.