Call to reduce cooling measures

Property industry experts are hoping to see a reduction of some of the previous market cooling measures in the Singapore Budget 2014, which will be revealed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam (pictured) on February 21.

Tweaks, or an entire roll-back of the additional buyers stamp duty (ABSD) and the total debt service ratio (TDSR) would be most welcomed by the sector.

Donald Han, Managing Director at Chesterton Singapore, said: "Our wish is for the government to consider scaling back or loosening certain measures which have yielded the desired results."

Notably, the introduction of the ABSD as well as the seller's stamp duty saw sub-sales and foreigners' participation rates in the Singapore property market hit new lows, while the TDSR framework has successfully slammed the brakes on skyrocketing property prices and transaction volumes.

Han added that reviewing these policies will give foreign investors the "right signal."

Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg

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