Responding to the new cooling measures announced by the Government on 6 July, the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) said in a statement that it did not see the rationale of imposing additional harsh measures on developers, a reference to the increase of ABSD for entities from 15 per cent to 25 per cent, and an additional 5 per cent that is non-remittable. Redas said the market outlook has been gloomy since 2013, and only started to pick up in 2017, expanding 1.5 per cent in the second half of 2017 and 7.4 per cent in the first half of 2018. It also noted that transaction volume is not high and within market expectation, adding that the old ABSD and total debt servicing ratios in place since 2013 “remain a restraining factor for foreign buyers and Singaporeans”. At a seminar on 17 July, Redas president Augustine Tan called the measures “a big setback for the property market in Singapore”, and that they have raised the cost of home ownership and cooled demand from investors and foreigners, while possibly eroding the confidence of developers, investors and buyers. Redas also said that the property market “should be allowed time to find its own course and reach a sustained equilibrium” and that it was “in the interest of the country to have a vibrant real estate industry and a steady growth in real estate value for home owners and investors in the long term”.
