On property measures

Here's what participants at The Business Times' Pre-Budget Roundtable 2015 had to say about property measures:

"I think it is necessary to ease some of the cooling measures. For private property, we already have the TDSR (total debt servicing ratio) and the SSD (seller's stamp duty). TDSR at the entry level ensures prudence, SSD at the exit level ensures no speculation. If you have these two, then the ABSD (additional buyer's stamp duty) is not really necessary ... And I think ABSD is really due to be tweaked as soon as possible. Singaporeans still have liquidity so they buy overseas. They buy Iskandar, they buy Tokyo, they buy USA. They don't know what they're buying but they just buy, and the money is just flowing outwards."

Mohamed Ismail