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Today’s papers reported that measures are rolled out with immediate effect to curb property speculation. In layman terms, they are:

(1) Sellers to pay stamp duty again if they resell the property within 3 years of purchase. (A $1m property attracts $24,600 of stamp duty.)

(2) For buyers who have outstanding loans with banks or HDB they

(a) need to pay at least 10% in cash for downpayment, instead of 5%.

(b) can only loan up to 70% of property valuation limits.

Looks like the government is intervening as the property market astronomical rise is going out of hand and they can only continue to roll out measures in a such manners to react accordingly.

I feel that more can be done to curb the property craze. It is a good thing that government is trying to balance speculative interest from real home seekers. However from my observation, most speculators are already sitting on high paper/real profits; the people who are trying to buy now are real home seekers. Read more…