There’s hope yet for the en-bloc scene for bigger properties, as of this week. The Government has announced planned revisions to ABSD deadlines for developers. These will be applied to “complex large-scale urban transformation developments,” in which ABSD deadlines can be extended from six to 12 months. By “large-scale,” the definition seems to be projects with at least 700 units, or 1.5 times the number of homes in the existing development (e.g., a 300-unit project being redeveloped into something with 750 units). It also applies to projects under the Strategic Development Incentive (SDI) scheme, but this is less relevant to residential housing (the SDI is an initiative to rejuvenate older commercial buildings.) Prior to this change, developers would have only five years to complete and sell out a development. Failure to do so would result in the loss of ABSD remission. This is a boost to the en-bloc market The five-year ABSD remission deadline was designed to prevent land hoarding....