singaporeans worry over property market
News Posted On: 10 February 2012
Singaporeans are facing a gloomy outlook for the property market with some experts predicting prices could drop by up to 10%, depending on how the global economy performs this year.
The reason for their pessimistic outlook is largely because home values aren't rising as quickly as before. The latest figures from Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority show the rate of price increase for residential properties slowing for the ninth consecutive quarter at the end of 2011, and rental rates are also failing to rise.
Sales volumes for January are expected to be good, but the Real Estate Developers Association of Singapore has cautioned against reading too much into these figures, as they could be distorted by two large project launches and so don't really reflect the true state of the market.
The Association is also worried that if sales figures begin picking up there could be another round of cooling measures, and are concerned that additional buyers stamp duty has already affected the market.
These sentiments are backed up by new data from the National University of Singapore which shows measures to help cool the housing market are already taking effect as property prices fell in December compared to November.
In November prices prices rose by 1.4%, while prices of private non landed residential property in Singapore fell by 0.8% .In December the Singaporean government imposed an additional stamp duty tax equal to 10% of the property's value which is payable by foreigners buying private homes.
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Written by Les Calvert
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