Quite a lot of bulk residential sales were noted in Q1 2017 as about foreign designers tried to divest their outstanding unsold units to bypass paying heavy penalties.
Singapore have seen the sales of investment property developments, or large-ticket property businesses of no less than $10 million, drop 38.5% to $5.2 billion in Q1 2017, stated the Business Times.
Property consultancy Savills reported that commercial property investment sales alleged for $2.8 billion of the entire sales, whereas industrial properties paid $344.2 million. The residential part, on the other hand, completed up $2.1 billion.
This comes as a burst of bulk residential sales were noted in the first sector of 2017 as some foreign designers tried to offload their residual unsold units in advance of the Qualifying Certificate (QC) time limit to avoid paying heavy penalties.
Developers also protected a slew of final deals on 10 March, together with TwentyOne Angullia Park, The Lumos, The Line @ Tanjong Rhu and Robin Residences to avoid the new added transportation duties (ACD), which took upshot the next day.
The ACD plugged a tax gap that permitted some bulk buyers of residential property in Singapore to relish significant savings in brand duties.
With the new rule, the Managing Director at Savills Singapore, Steven Ming have confidence in institutions will not likely “return to the bulk housing sales market as the heavy 18% stamp duty cuts bottomless into their obligatory rates of return”.
On the other hand, Head of Research, Desmond Sim, Singapore and South East Asia at CBRE, perceives a bright spot in the cooperative sales market.
“We should see more attention in end block sales from land-starving developers, particularly in the face of partial supply over the Government Land Sales Program.”
