Quieter year seen ahead after 'tale of two halves'

[SINGAPORE] Coming on the heels of a dramatic year peppered with policies aimed at cooling the property market and a number of firsts in public housing, 2014 appears poised to be a more subdued year by comparison.

Consultants say it is unlikely that the government will roll out any new policies next year, even though they do not rule out some tweaking of existing measures.

"Policy changes, if any, may most likely be of the 'unwinding' kind - that is, rolling back earlier policies," said Chua Yang Liang, head of research, South-east Asia, at Jones Lang LaSalle. "The timing will depend very much on the pace of economic growth and the response from the property market during the period. We reckon a healthy long-term growth rate of 1-2 per cent a quarter on the Property Price Index is what the state is comfortable with."