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Singapore Budget 2016: Reprieve for property developers unlikely

Redas seeks policy review to ensure property market slowdown doesn't spill over into broader economy, but MAS and economists see no severe impact

Published Thu, Mar 17, 2016 · 09:50 PM

Singapore residential property

Singapore

IT seems unlikely that the government will offer property developers any reprieve in this month's Budget, industry watchers believe.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) was very direct in its reply on Feb 29: "It is too early to relax the measures now. Doing so could result in a market rebound."

This was a written reply to a Member of Parliament who had asked if MND would consider reviewing the cooling measures by removing the additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) for Singaporeans, but retaining it for foreigners.

In recent years, the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas), too, has been lobbying for a review of the measures.

But Redas president Augustine Tan told The Business Times that the association has not sent the government any Budget wish list, unlike other trade associations, as it d…