SG Budget

[Ringo33]

It is still too early to start relaxing the cooling measures for property market in Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, said on Friday.
"Given the run-up in prices in the last four years, it is too early to start relaxing our measures," Mr Tharman said. "The government will continue to monitor the property market in the coming quarters and adjust our measures when necessary."
Mr Tharman said the cooling measures have been aimed at moderating the market, so as to prevent property prices from getting too far out of line with incomes.
"We are not engineering a hard landing. But neither are we able to eliminate cycles in the property market, with upswings in prices in some years followed by corrections." he added.
In the area of industrial space, Mr Tharman noted that a very large quantity of industrial and shop space is entering the market. These should have a moderating impact on rental costs over the next few years.

[hyenergix]

SG Budget: Hike in levy for basic skilled permit holders in construction sector in 2016: Tharman
BY JAMIE LEE LEE
[email protected]
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 21, 2014

SINGAPORE will increase foreign worker levies for basic skilled work permit holders in the construction industry in 2016, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, said on Friday.

In July 2016, the levy for basic skilled or R2 work permit holders employed within man-year entitlement will be raised from S$600 to S$700.

"We are announcing this change in the construction sector two years in advance because of the significant pre-planning needed in such projects," Mr Tharman told parliament.

The levies for higher skilled or R1 work permit holders will be unchanged. This is to further encourage construction firms to opt for more skilled foreign workers, he said.

But there are plans to look into mandating a minimum proportion of R1 work permit holders at the firm level at a later time.

The government also plans to introduce a new market-based skills recognition framework to complement the existing pathway which requires work permit holders to pass a skills certification test to achieve higher skilled status.

With this, basic skilled workers who have worked in Singapore for at least six years, and who earn a salary of at least S$1,600, will be allowed to upgrade to higher skilled or R1 status, Mr Tharman said.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/brea...tor-2016-tharm

[hyenergix]

Looks like labour cost can only go up.

[wt_know]

so do property price for property build post 2016

Looks like labour cost can only go up.

[hyenergix]

so do property price for property build post 2016

Those that are going to be launched from this point onward will have to start factoring in the higher levies.

[GIG]

Those that are going to be launched from this point onward will have to start factoring in the higher levies.

The idea is for the constructions to be innovative and improve productivity.
Developers must start to accept reduce profit margin and lower selling price.
If not the cooling measures will stay for long time.
Looks like the direction from govt is clear...property prices has to go down further.

[DuaNehNehChioBu]

Well hope the property prices will goes down like there is NO tomorrow

[Ringo33]

Tharman say its too early, he didnt say they wont.

[princess_morbucks]

Tharman say its too early, he didnt say they wont.

So we have to wait till Budget 2015?

Surprisingly there is no wealth tax.
I think the wealthy forummers can breathe a sigh of relief on that.

[walkthetiger]

So we have to wait till Budget 2015?

.

The date will depend on how much the price has dropped.

[walkthetiger]

The idea is for the constructions to be innovative and improve productivity.
Developers must start to accept reduce profit margin and lower selling price.
If not the cooling measures will stay for long time.
Looks like the direction from govt is clear...property prices has to go down further.

Agree...Developers should wake up, to sustain they need to cut price more, especially for the many unsold units.
So many unsold units....eventually all will end up joining the fight for tenants.

[pmet]

The govt has done well, perhaps trying hard to woo back voters in the coming GE. They have the cards in their hands and they have played it well. Way to go, Tharman!

[pmet]

Looks like labour cost can only go up.

Developers sitting on fat profit margin, think this has virtually no effect on pricing.

[VS]

The date will depend on how much the price has dropped.

I think the cooling measures will be removed only when the government's pockets are affected, eg, GLS attracting low bids.

[minority]

cooling measures only be removed if interest rates goes up.

[pmet]

The govt has done well, perhaps trying hard to woo back voters in the coming GE. They have the cards in their hands and they have played it well. Way to go, Tharman!

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo...ics?page=0%2C1

One exception is Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, whom he praised as "down to earth".
"Tharman is the type of person we should look for, and if we can get many people like him, I think the PAP will win (future elections) hands down," he declared.
"I think Tharman is a very practical chap, he knows how to move the ground...he's got the charisma to convince me that I want to go along with him," he said.

[pmet]

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo...ics?page=0%2C1

One exception is Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, whom he praised as "down to earth".
"Tharman is the type of person we should look for, and if we can get many people like him, I think the PAP will win (future elections) hands down," he declared.
"I think Tharman is a very practical chap, he knows how to move the ground...he's got the charisma to convince me that I want to go along with him," he said.

Talking about Tharman, Tan Cheng Bock has sung some praises for him!

[DuaNehNehChioBu]

Tharman say its too early, he didnt say they wont.

Since NO early, conclusion wait long long lah.

[princess_morbucks]

http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-...says-dpm-tharm

It is still too early for the Government to relax its property cooling measures, given the increase in home prices in the last four years, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
The Government will continue to monitor the real estate market and adjust its measures when necessary, he added.
He said that the Government has been concerned about property prices, which have risen strongly in recent years.
The successive rounds of market-cooling measures are working, with both the HDB resale and private residential prices stabilising, he added.
"We are not engineering a hard landing," he said in the annual Budget speech in Parliament on Friday.
"But neither are we able to eliminate cycles in the property market, with upswings in prices in some years followed by corrections."
Addressing complaints by business about rising costs including property rents, Mr Tharman noted that companies have faced rising rental expenses in the last few years, especially in industrial space.
But he said that a very large quantity of industrial and shop space is entering the market, and should have a moderating influence on property prices and rents over the next few years.

[GIG]

http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-...says-dpm-tharm

It is still too early for the Government to relax its property cooling measures, given the increase in home prices in the last four years, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
The Government will continue to monitor the real estate market and adjust its measures when necessary, he added.
He said that the Government has been concerned about property prices, which have risen strongly in recent years.
The successive rounds of market-cooling measures are working, with both the HDB resale and private residential prices stabilising, he added.
"We are not engineering a hard landing," he said in the annual Budget speech in Parliament on Friday.
"But neither are we able to eliminate cycles in the property market, with upswings in prices in some years followed by corrections."
Addressing complaints by business about rising costs including property rents, Mr Tharman noted that companies have faced rising rental expenses in the last few years, especially in industrial space.
But he said that a very large quantity of industrial and shop space is entering the market, and should have a moderating influence on property prices and rents over the next few years.

There are hints from Tharman for our guidance.
"given the increase in home prices in the last four years" ----- it shows that prices has
gone up too excessively and need to go down.

"Government has been concerned about property prices, which have risen strongly in recent years." ----- another statement to show that property prices should not not be at this level...need to bring down.


"We are not engineering a hard landing," he said in the annual Budget speech in Parliament on Friday.
"But neither are we able to eliminate cycles in the property market, with upswings in prices in some years followed by corrections."
------ They do not want property prices to crash...but it will still go down in soft landing due to normal property cycles that have happened before.

[hyenergix]

The idea is for the constructions to be innovative and improve productivity.
Developers must start to accept reduce profit margin and lower selling price.
If not the cooling measures will stay for long time.
Looks like the direction from govt is clear...property prices has to go down further.

It is difficult for construction industry to be innovative. E.g. Brick wall -> Dry wall is a very bad innovation. The extra foreign worker levy does not benefit the house owner, but acts against it. We are seeing a lot of corner cutting in recent condos, the latest highlight is V@E. We need more foreign workers in high risk low pay blue collar jobs, not less.

[hyenergix]

Developers sitting on fat profit margin, think this has virtually no effect on pricing.

Yes, difficult for prices to go up. I see some troubles ahead for small developers, and other small players in the real estate linked industries.

[Ringo33]

PROPERTY developers and consultants didn't get the rolling back or tweaking of property cooling measures they were hoping for but took things in their stride, after Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam declared: "Given the run-up in prices in the last four years, it is too early to start relaxing our measures. The government will continue to monitor the property market in the coming quarters and adjust our measures when necessary.
"We are not engineering a hard landing. But neither are we able to eliminate cycles in the property market, with upswings in prices in some years followed by corrections."
Property industry players had called for a scaleback of the seven rounds of property cooling since 2009, which rolled out measures such as the seller's stamp duty (to discourage short-term trading in property), additional buyer's stamp duty (targeting property investors and foreign buyers) and lower loan-to-value limits for those taking their second or subsequent home mortgages.
Frasers Centrepoint Homes CEO Cheang Kok Kheong said last night: "I guess they will let the measures run for a couple more quarters before deciding what to do. Right now, the market still has depth. People are still investing. The economy's doing well and there's liquidity."
The group has collected 585 cheques for its 495-unit Rivertrees Residences condo in Sengkang, where sales begin today. The average price is $1,050 psf, compared with slightly over $1,000 psf for the next-door Riverbank@Fernvale released last week.
Chesterton Singapore managing director Donald Han reckons it will take a few consecutive quarters of price contractions before the government scales back cooling measures. The official private home price index has posted only its first quarter-on-quarter drop, of 0.9 per cent, in Q4 2013 since Q1 2012.
The Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore said it "noted that the government is not engineering a hard landing and will continue to monitor the property market and adjust the cooling measures when necessary".
Addressing the issue of rising rentals for businesses, Mr Tharman noted that "a very large quantity of industrial and shop space is entering the market, and should have a moderating influence over the next few years".
New industrial spaces clustering companies within the same industry will also help SMEs reduce costs through consolidating operations, pooling resources and aggregating demand for delivery and other services.
"For instance, JTC's Food Hub concept will feature an integrated cold room-warehouse shared facility operated by a third party provider who will also provide logistics services. This will not only lower the capital investments needed by SMEs - as they no longer need to invest in their own cold rooms - but also enable them to benefit from more efficient supply chains," said Mr Tharman.
Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry said: "We are glad that government agencies like JTC and HDB are taking steps to create a pipeline of industrial/commercial space for business. We would hope that some of this space could be extended to SMEs at an affordable rate."
To encourage businesses to maximise land use, the Land Intensification Allowance (LIA), due to expire next year, will be renewed for five years to June 30, 2020. The scheme will also be extended to the logistics sector and businesses carrying out qualifying activities on airport and port land. "When you look at these three new areas joining the LIA scheme, you can see the government's ambition to enhance Singapore's competitiveness as a regional transportation hub," said KPMG tax partner Gan Kwee Lian.
Introduced in Budget 2010 to promote industrial land productivity and higher value-added activities, LIA was limited to nine targeted sectors, including pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and aerospace. Companies can claim for capital expenditure incurred to construct a qualifying building or structure over 15 years.
From today, the government is streamlining the stamp duty rate structure. Tang Woon Ee, partner, Rodyk & Davidson, said this has only a marginal impact on the amount of stamp duty payable for property purchases, share transfers and mortgage instruments.
As for property leases, there are stamp duty savings for short-term leases of under a year. However, for leases that are over two years but not exceeding three years, there is a significant increase in stamp duty payable. For instance, a three-year lease for an apartment at $3,000 monthly rent attracts $432 stamp duty - 50 per cent more than the $288 under the old system. "Leases beyond three years do not seem to have much difference in stamp duty payable," she added.
The Ministry of Finance noted that currently the stamp duty on a property lease is assessed on the annualised rental amount, regardless of the actual lease period. This means that a one-month lease will bear the same stamp duty amount as a one-year lease, where the monthly rent is the same for both leases. "To ensure consistency in stamp duty treatment across leases of varying tenures", leases up to four years will attract stamp duty of 0.4 per cent of the total rent for the entire lease period. For leases exceeding four years or for any indefinite term, the stamp duty rate is 0.4 per cent of four times the average annual rent for the entire lease period.
Leung Yew Kwong, principal tax consultant at KMPG, said: "The new system uses a percentage of the consideration eg rent or purchase price, which simplifies the computation, whereas the old system was a more complicated way of counting. In fact, many people were already using a decimal system for ease of calculation."
For the Approved Building Project Scheme, a review date, March 31, 2017, has been set. The scheme accords exemption from property tax on land under development, for up to three years, to big industrial building projects supported by the EDB. Typically such projects involve spending of at least $500 million (excluding land costs)

[newbie11]

------ They do not want property prices to crash...but it will still go down in soft landing due to normal property cycles that have happened before.

is it normal cycle to have gov interventions

[jwong71]

cooling measures only be removed if interest rates goes up.

cooling measures should be removed only when pple have zero interest in as investment props.

own stay purpose

[GIG]

is it normal cycle to have gov interventions

It is normal with or without govt intervention.
If the govt did not intervene the prices will bubble and will cause severe crash...this is what we may call normal cycle but with severe impact on the economy.
If prices continue to climb without stop, it will also be considered a normal cycle if govt
Intervene, as it will avert a severe crash ahead and not put the economy into jeorpady.