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Govt 'can't be hands off about the property cycle'

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, speaking at Redas dinner, tells why the government had to impose the measures to cool the property market in July

Kalpana Rashiwala

Published Thu, Nov 15, 2018 · 09:50 PM

Redas

Singapore

THE government cannot take a hands-off approach to the property cycle and allow bubbles to develop, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong as he went into the rationale behind July's cooling measures.

Speaking at the anniversary dinner of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas) on Thursday, he said that had the authorities not intervened, private home prices this year were very likely to have gone up by more than 10 per cent, or even by 15 per cent.

"It would continue next year and then in two, three years' time, there would be another crash. And many more Singaporeans would be hurt.

"And that's the reason we decided we had to move with the coolin…