Singapore has had a long love-hate relationship with property cooling measures. These have been introduced since 1996 (see this Business Times article for a full summary), starting with Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD), to Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD), to Loan-To-Value (LTV) restrictions, and Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) measures. Love-hate, because people looking to buy a property welcome these measures to make property more affordable, and people who own property bemoan these measures for stopping them growing richer faster.

But the fact of the matter is that all these property cooling measures introduced have not been very successful. In fact, looking at the chart below from SRX, we can see that apart from the period between 2014 and 2017, none of the property cooling measures have resulted in a decline in private resale property prices. At best, price growth