From ‘cowboy’ times to cooling measures: real estate veteran Chia Ngiang Hong on Singapore’s market

THE real estate sector in Singapore has become “very orderly, transparent and very reliable” over the past 40 years, said industry veteran Chia Ngiang Hong, adding that for property development to remain a viable business, the government can consider relooking some restrictions.

Gone are the days when private-property buyers could flip an option to purchase, or when developers used money collected from the sale of units to buy more land, noted the group general manager of City Developments Ltd (CDL), in an interview with The Business Times. 

“Last time, everything was quite ‘cowboy’. Along the way, a lot of things got cleaned up – such as how people use their Central Provident Fund savings, how they tried to sell options. There were a lot of creative people trying to make a quick buck in the early days.”