Soaring home prices have once again prompted the government to introduce certain cooling measures to the property market. If you were planning to purchase a property with a bank home loan, these measures can mean forking out considerably more in stamp duties, especially if it isn’t your first property purchase. Here are the measures that have been imposed: Measure 1: Higher Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates Liable buyers will now have to pay an additional 5% in ABSD. The ABSD is an additional stamp duty that liable buyers will have to pay, on top of the existing Buyer’s Stamp Duty (BSD). Whether or not and how much ABSD you’ll have to pay depends on your residency status and how many residential properties you already own. Measure 2: Lower Loan-to-value (LTV) limit LTV limits have been reduced by 5% for all housing loans granted by financial institutions. This means that ......