Property sector gets 6-month extension to temporary relief measures

THE Singapore government has extended temporary relief measures for property developers in view of the continued disruptions to construction timelines from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Developers will get six-month extensions to the construction timeline-related requirements for the Project Completion Period (PCP), Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) regime and Qualifying Certificate (QC) regime.

In a joint statement on Monday, the Ministries of National Development, Finance, Law and Trade and Industry said that although construction work has gradually resumed from August 2020, construction projects continue to face challenges.

"The sector may experience manpower shortages and further disruptions to construction timelines due to the tightening of border measures from April and May 2021 that limit the inflow of migrant workers," they said.

The latest extensions are in addition to temporary relief measures announced on May 6, 2020 and October 8, 2020. They do not alter the existing residential property market cooling measures, the ministries noted.

The PCP will be extended by six months for qualifying residential, commercial and industrial development projects.

Commencement and completion timelines for residential development projects will be extended by six months in relation to the remission of ABSD for qualifying household developers.

The extensions of these two measures will be granted to qualifying developers automatically, and no application is necessary.

The PCP will also be extended by six months for residential development projects under the QC regime for qualifying foreign housing developers.

Qualifying developers will need to write to the Singapore Land Authority's Land Dealings Approval Unit (LDAU) by Dec 1, 2021 to apply for this extension. Developers who already applied for and obtained an extension to their existing completion deadlines under the temporary relief measures announced on May 6, 2020 and October 8, 2020 will be automatically granted the additional six-month waiver of extension charges. LDAU will notify them of their new deadlines.