Time to give Singapore's fair tenancy framework legislative bite

Singapore

FIVE years after a committee under the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) came up with guidelines aimed at halting unfair leasing practices and months after we first heard of Covid-19, which then was known under a different name, concrete steps are finally being taken to right the perceived imbalance of power between landlords and tenants.

Even as businesses celebrate (albeit while lamenting that it is overdue) the announcement by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday that the government will introduce new legislation in Parliament next week to place an obligation on property owners to pass on the property tax rebate to their tenants, two questions stand out: why did it take us this long to get here and perhaps more pertinently, was regulation the only way forward?