Singapore Budget Reaction: Incremental demand for office spaces by new reit listings will be marginal: JLL

Here are some comments by Chua Yang Liang, Head of Research, South East Asia, at Jones Lang LaSalle on the government's plans to extend tax concessions for listed real estate investment trusts (reits) and terminate stamp duty remission on Singapore properties:

" While this proposed tax could encourage the further development of the reits market in Singapore, the incremental demand for office spaces by any new reit listings will be marginal in light of the large office supply."

"Likewise the non-extension of the stamp duty remission this year will not have significant downside impact on the real estate market as this would have been factored in previously.''

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told Parliament on Monday in this year's Budget Statement that the current set of income tax concessions and exemptions on qualifying foreign-sourced income will be extended to March 31, 2020. Meanwhile, the stamp duty remission on the transfer of Singapore immovable property will lapse on March 31, 2015.