Sunday, August 5, 2007

Cooling down the property market in Singapore

In a clear sign that the Singapore authorities have finally decided to take action againest sky-rocketing property prices, the Singapore authorities have overturned a S$500 million condominium purchase by developer Hotel Properties.

The government have sided with a minority of the homeowners who had objected to the sale. The reason given was that the January acquisition of downtown residential estate Horizon Towers did not comply with the proper procedures. Aka, paperwork was not in order as the committee of homeowners that organized the sale had failed to file certain documents. This was the first time in seven years a collective property sale had been overturned as a result of objections by a minority of owners. And it is about time!

In case anyone do not know this, under Singapore law, housing estates can be sold collectively as long as the building is over a decade old and they have the agreement of owners with 80 percent of the property's value. Rising real estate values has pushed the property market to 10 years high recently, making it much harder for Singaporeans to either buy houses or upgraded. It's about bloody time something was done to cool the market down.

The Singapore government has made several recent measures to slow the property boom and I hoped it will cool the market. No one wants the market to collapse but the market is way too hot. Anyone who has read my posts before knows that I'm in favour of cooling down the market so it's no surprise that I'm happy about these recent developments by the Singapore government. Hopefully it will be enough and Singaporeans can now dream of that house once again.

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