New Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) from 12 Jan 2013

Above table is from IRAS e-Tax Guide (Page 5)
You may download the IRAS e-Tax Guide from the link below
IRAS e-Tax Guide

New property cooling measures announced

They include size restrictions on executive condominiums, tighter loan-to-valuations and higher buyer stamp duty. -Singapolitics 

Additional measures to ensure a stable and sustainable property market

SINGAPORE - The Government announced today a comprehensive package of measures to cool the residential property market. It also introduced a Seller's Stamp Duty on industrial properties for the first time, to discourage speculative activity in the industrial market.

Cooling Measures for the Residential Property Market

The Government has implemented several rounds of measures to cool demand and expand supply, so as to moderate the increase in housing prices. While these measures have dampened speculative buying, the demand for residential property remains firm and prices have continued to rise.

The continued buoyancy of the property market reflects the very low interest rate environment and continued income growth in Singapore. These factors supported a record level of housing transactions last year, particularly from investment demand.

Housing prices have also shown signs of reaccelerating in recent months, in both the private residential and HDB resale flat markets.

Price increases, if not checked, will run further ahead of economic fundamentals and raise the risk of a major, destabilising correction later on.

The Government has therefore decided to implement a further set of measures to cool the private and public housing markets.

These measures are calibrated to be tighter on property ownership for investment, as well as on foreign buyers. To discourage over-borrowing, financing conditions for housing have also been tightened. In addition, structural measures have been implemented to strengthen the policy intent of public housing and executive condominiums.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: "The reality we face is that interest rates are extraordinarily low, globally and in Singapore, and continue to add fuel to our property market. We have to take this further round of measures now, to check recent market trends and avoid a more serious correction in prices further down the road."

Minister for National Development Mr Khaw Boon Wan said: "A large supply of public and private housing - up to 200,000 units in total - will be completed in the coming years. Coupled with the new measures, we will be better placed to ensure that housing remains affordable to Singaporeans."

Measures Applicable to all Residential Property

The following measures will take effect on 12 January 2013:

-Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates will be: i) Raised between five and seven percentage points across the board. ii) Imposed on Permanent Residents (PRs) purchasing their first residential property and on Singaporeans purchasing their second residential property.

-Loan-to-Value limits on housing loans granted by financial institutions1 will be tightened for individuals who already have at least one outstanding loan, as well as to non-individuals such as companies.

- Besides tighter Loan-to-Value limits, the minimum cash down payment for individuals applying for a second or subsequent housing loan will also be raised from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

The measures listed above will not impact most Singaporeans buying their first home. Some concessions will also be extended to selected groups of buyers, such as married couples with at least one Singaporean spouse who are purchasing their second property and will sell their first residential property.

These new ABSDs and loan rules are significant, but they are temporary. They are being imposed to cool the market now, and will be reviewed in future depending on market conditions.

Measures Specific to Public Housing

The Government is also introducing measures to further moderate the demand for HDB flats, instil greater financial prudence among buyers, and require owner occupation by PR buyers. The following measures will take effect on 12 January 2013:

a) Tighter eligibility for loans to buy HDB flats:

i) MAS will cap the Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) for housing loans granted by financial institutions at 30 per cent of a borrower's gross monthly income.

ii) For loans granted by HDB, the cap on the MSR will be lowered from 40 per cent to 35 per cent.

b) PRs who own a HDB flat will be disallowed from subletting their whole flat.

c) PRs who own a HDB flat must sell their flat within six months of purchasing a private residential property in Singapore.

An additional measure will take effect on 1 July 2013 to tighten the terms for granting HDB loans and the use of CPF funds for the purchase of HDB flats with remaining leases of less than 60 years.

Measures for Executive Condominium Developments

The Government will introduce measures specific to new EC developments to ensure that ECs continue to serve as an affordable housing option for middle-income Singaporean families.

The following measures will take effect on 12 January 2013:

a) The maximum strata floor area of new EC units will be capped at 160 square metres.

b) Sales of new dual-key EC units will be restricted to multi-generational families only.

c) Developers of future EC sale sites from the Government Land Sales programme will only be allowed to launch units for sale 15 months from the date of award of the sites or after the physical completion of foundation works, whichever is earlier.

d) Private enclosed spaces and private roof terraces will be treated as gross floor area (GFA). The GFA of such spaces in non-landed residential developments, including ECs, will be counted as part of the 'bonus' GFA of a residential development and subject to payment of charges. This is in line with the treatment of balconies under URA's current guidelines.

Details of this measure are at www.ura.gov.sg/circulars/text/dc13-01.htm.

Cooling Measure for the Industrial Property Market: Seller's Stamp Duty

Prices of industrial properties have doubled over the last three years, outpacing the increase in rentals.

In addition, there has been increasing speculation in industrial properties. In 2011 and the first eleven months of 2012, about 15 per cent and 18 per cent respectively of all transactions of multiple-user factory space were resale transactions carried out within three years of purchase. This is significantly higher than the average of about 10 per cent from 2006 to 2010.

The Government is also introducing Seller's Stamp Duty (SSD) on industrial property to discourage short-term speculative activity which could distort the underlying prices of industrial properties and raise costs for businesses.

The following SSD rates will be imposed on industrial properties and land bought and sold within three years of the date of purchase:

a) SSD at 15 per cent if the property is sold in the first year of purchase, i.e. the property is held for one year or less from the date of purchase.

b) SSD at 10 per cent if the property is sold in the second year of purchase, i.e. the property is held for more than one year and up to two years from the date of purchase.

c) SSD at 5 per cent if the property is sold in the third year of purchase, i.e. the property is held for more than two years and up to three years from the date of purchase. These SSDs will apply for industrial properties and land bought on or after 12 January 2013.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) will be releasing an E-tax guide on the circumstances under which SSD is applicable and the procedures for paying SSD.

The E-tax guide will be available at www.iras.gov.sg.

Fri, Jan 11, 2013
Singapolitics

Source: AsiaOne

URA releases flash 4th quarter 2012 private residential property price index

The URA released today the flash estimate of the price index for private residential property for 4th Quarter 2012.

The overall private residential property index rose from 208.2 points in 3rd Quarter 2012 to 211.9 points in 4th Quarter 2012. This represents an increase of 1.8%, compared to the 0.6% increase in the previous quarter (seeAnnex A). For the year 2012 as a whole, prices of private residential properties increased by about 2.8% (based on preliminary 4Q2012 flash estimate), lower than the 5.9% increase in 2011.

Prices of non-landed private residential properties increased by 0.8% in Core Central Region in 4th Quarter 2012, compared to an increase of 0.1% in the previous quarter. Prices in Rest of Central Region increased by 0.9%, compared to the 0.8% increase in the previous quarter. For Outside Central Region, prices increased by 3.4% in 4th Quarter 2012, compared to an increase of 1.0% in the previous quarter (see Annex B).

The flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in caveats lodged during the first ten weeks of the quarter supplemented by information on the number of new units sold by developers. The statistics will be updated 4 weeks later when URA releases the full 4th Quarter 2012 real estate statistics, when more data on the caveats lodged and the take-up of new projects are captured. Past data have shown that the difference between the quarterly price changes indicated by the flash estimate and the actual price changes could be significant when the change is small. The public is advised to interpret the flash estimates with caution.

Source: URA

Singapore Q4 private home prices rise 1.8%

Private home prices rose 2.8% for the whole of 2012, based on preliminary estimates. -Reuters

SINGAPORE - Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released preliminary private home price data for the fourth quarter of 2012 on Wednesday:

Private home prices rose 2.8 per cent for the whole of 2012, based on preliminary estimates.

Prices of non-landed private residential properties rose 0.8 percent in the core central region in the fourth quarter, compared with 0.1 per cent in the previous quarter. Prices in the rest of the central region rose 0.9 per cent, compared with 0.8 per cent in the third quarter.

The URA flash estimates are based on caveats lodged during the first 10 weeks of the quarter, supplemented by information on the number of new units sold by developers. URA will release detailed data towards the end of the month.

In October, Singapore introduced new measures to cool its housing market. The steps include a maximum tenure of 35 years for all new residential property loans, with loans exceeding 30 years facing significantly tighter loan-to-value limits.

Wed, Jan 02, 2013
Reuters

HDB resale prices up 2.5% in Q4 2012

The HDB released its flash estimate of the Resale Price Index early this morning. -ST 

The Board added that it will now target to launch at least 23,000 Build-to-Order (BTO) flats in 2013 in various towns.

HDB's flash estimate of the 4th Quarter 2012 Resale Price Index (RPI) is 202.9, a 2.5 per cent increase over the third quarter of 2012.

The RPI provides information on the general price movements in the public residential market.

The RPI for the full quarter and more detailed public housing data for 4th Quarter 2012 will be released on Jan 25.

Upcoming new flat supply

In 2012, HDB offered a record number of 34,237 new flats comprising 27,084 new flats under the Build-To-Order (BTO) system and 7,153 balance flats under the Sales of Balance Flats Exercise.

HDB had earlier announced that at least 20,000 BTO flats are planned for 2013.

HDB is finalising its building plans for 2013 and will now target to launch at least 23,000 BTO flats. These projects will have a good geographical spread in various towns/estates.

The first batch of 3,346 BTO flats in Choa Chu Kang, Yishun, Hougang, Tampines, Kallang Whampoa, and Ang Mo Kio will be offered for sale later this month.

More details will be given at the launch of the BTO exercise.

Wed, Jan 02, 2013
The Straits Times, AsiaOne

Source: HDB