Let genuine HDB upgraders off the hook for ABSD, PropNex CEO suggests

Singapore

TO HELP HDB upgraders buy private property, the government could hold off levying the additional buyer's stamp duty within the six-month disposal period, which would address the problem of the repeated re-issue of options to purchase (OTP), Ismail Gafoor, the chief executive of PropNex, has suggested.

He is taking a leaf from a similar dispensation given to HDB upgraders who buy units in executive condominiums (ECs): This group is given six months to dispose of their flats after having collected the key to their new EC home, he said. (ECs are a public-private housing hybrid.)