Property developers will now have more time to finish developing residential sites that were acquired en bloc due to changes to the deadlines set by the government, reported The Business Times.
Under new guidelines, developers will still adhere to the five-year deadline to finish their projects. However, the deadline period will start from the date when the en bloc sale order was granted instead of much earlier based on existing rules.
The changes were made to address concerns by the industry over the time it takes to obtain a collective sale order from the High Court or Strata Titles Board (STB), and include two regulations under the ministries of law and finance.
Currently, the five-year project completion period (PCP) for foreign developers to finish their en bloc housing sites starts from the date of the collective sale order, instead of the date of issue of a Qualifying Certificate (QC).
The change will “enable the developer to have the full PCP to complete the project”, according to the Singapore Land Authority (a statutory board under MinLaw).
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) will adopt the same approach with regards to the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD).
MOF said: “The start date of the five-year period for the completion and sale of all residential units to qualify for ABSD remission will start from the date of the collective sale order.”
The changes apply to collective sales from 1 July 2012.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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