Redas chief calls for tweaking of property cooling measures

WITH the Singapore general election over, the developers' body has renewed its call to the authorities to tweak the property cooling measures.

"The property cooling measures, in the current tone and intensity, could actually increase the risk to the real estate market and economy," Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas), said on Wednesday.

"We should re-examine and recalibrate or de-layer the permutations of the various measures to minimise risks," he added.

Redas will work to engage the government agencies in the coming weeks to offer "our constructive input", he said at Redas' Mid-Autumn Festival lunch.

Private home prices in Singapore have fallen for seven consecutive quarters. The market is in a period of sizeable supply of completed new private homes, vacancy rates are poised to rise, and rents expected to fall sharply in the next 12-18 months. These factors, combined with a deterioration in economic sentiments, "risk precipitating a downward spiralling of property prices when people are selling because prices are falling", said Mr Tan.

There is an urgent need to manage the exit of the cooling measures to ensure a soft landing for the housing market, he added. "This is the chief worry of developers and the many diverse stakeholders of the real estate ecosystem," said Mr Tan.