Although the government has reiterated that property cooling measures will be kept in place, some real estate consultants are still calling for a review of earlier curbs, which they believe may have become “redundant”, reported the media.
Speaking at the annual National Real Estate Congress yesterday, consultants believe earlier taxes such as the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) as well as the seller’s stamp duty (SSD) have become less relevant, considering that the total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) have effectively kept prices in check.
“I think nobody questions the reason behind the TDSR, but with it being in place for slightly more than a year now, I think it’s time for the Government to start looking at whether some of the earlier measures have become redundant because we have a pretty effective TDSR,” stated Colliers International Managing Director Dennis Yeo.
ERA Key Executive Officer Eugene Lim reckon the SSD has become unnecessary now that the speculative activity in the local property market dropped.
In fact, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) revealed sub-sales accounted for 3.4 percent of the overall sale transactions in Q2 2014, down from Q1’s 4.6 percent.
“The sub-sales number is actually very low across all types of properties, so there is very limited speculation. It could be an opportune time to review the measures aimed at tackling speculative buying and selling, which is essentially the SSD. Is it necessary anymore at this stage?” said Lim.
Meanwhile, ABSD for local buyers should either be removed or lowered to allow Singaporeans to acquire second properties, said consultants.
“Since TDSR is already preventing people from over-gearing, I don’t think tweaking ABSD for local buyers will cause prices to shoot up again. Developers also have a lot of stock to clear, so prices can’t shoot up,” noted Lim.
Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
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