In order to boost transparency in Singapore’s property market, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore will required property developers to submit net prices of the units sold from their delicensed projects, from September 2016 onwards.
The objective also for URA to use these data for computation of the price index for private residential properties from this quarter, aligning the information of price movements in the delicensed projects with the net prices of units selling in licensed new launch condo projects (which was required for submission to URA since May in year 2015).
A delicensed housing project refers to a newly built residential property attaining its Certificate of Statutory Completion (CSC) and buyers/owners have been issued with their respective strata titles, and net prices refer to prices after deduction of any rebates or discounts etc – be it in the form of cash reimbursements or price off.
URA has mentioned that the motive is aimed to ensure the price index of the private property market remains robust in the reflection of the price movements and improve its transparency to potential property buyers.
While price discounted offered upfront are being captured under this new regulation, indirect incentives such as deferred payment, guaranteed rental, ABSD absorption schemes will not be required for submission to URA.
It was added that delicensed projects will not be regulated by authorities and its rules, and thus without collation of price data in such projects, property developers are allowed to launch various flexible payment schemes to entice home buyers.
As noted in recent months, several market watchers have mentioned that there’s been a surge in direct sales from property developers for delicensed projects in the Core Central Region (CCR) as they have been packaged with a wide range of attractive perks and incentives.
A few being OUE Twin Peaks and Hilltops as they offer schemes such as deferred payment and attractive rental guarantee schemes.
It’s being suggested that the new implementation will result in a more reflective price index for the property market and will provide authorities a clearer picture of prices – if they have declined to a point that they deem comfortable with.