The Singapore government has recently increased the top tier rate of the buyer’s stamp duty by 4% and property developers believe that this move will not derail the recovery of the property market and they may up the prices at the future new launch projects, given the sky-high cost incurred for land acquisitions.
Speaking at the REDAS (Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore) lunch event for the Spring festival, the president of REDAS, Augustine Tan noted that the Singapore property market is in its early stages of an upturn and positive sentiments from the property buyers are likely to improve on.
And looking at the brightening economic outlook in Singapore, the sales momentum in the real estate sector may likely continue through for the next couple of years.
After a slump in property prices for more than 3 years, signs of recovery were shown as private home prices rose by around 1.1% in 2017 and property developers saw a 33% surge in private property sales – to around 10,566 units in that year alone.
Despite the fact that around 19,000 units are still unsold by the end of 2017, the government estimates that 34,495 more private residential homes are likely to be introduced into the property market in 2018 and 2019 – based on the ongoing land and collective sales.
They have also noted that with the lack of land resources in Singapore, they may be a increasingly need for more sites to be used for mixed-use property developments with a higher density.