Hot stock: Property counters jump on news of cooling measure tweaks

PROPERTY stock prices surged after tweaks to the property cooling measures were announced on Friday.

The FTSE ST Real Estate Holding and Development Index was up 2.5 per cent to 827.74 at 1.50pm.

Wing Tai was up 7.3 per cent to S$1.92. UOL Group added 5.7 per cent to S$7.00. City Developments rose 5.1 per cent to S$10.10, while CapitaLand increased 3.4 per cent to S$3.69.

The government on Friday said that the holding period for the seller's stamp duty will be shortened from the current four years to three years, and the rate will also be lowered by four percentage points for each tier.

The Total Debt Servicing Ratio framework will also no longer apply to mortgage equity withdrawal loans with loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of 50 per cent and below.

These kick in from March 11. The current additional buyer's stamp duty rates and LTV limits will remain.