Government will not introduce further measures to cool property market

National Development Minister, Mah Bow Tan, has said that although the government is closely monitoring the property market, it will not introduce further measures for now.

“If there are signs that the market will overheat again, we are ready to introduce additional measures to stabilise the market,” Mr. Mah said in response to MPs who asked if more steps would be taken to curb speculation.

He also announced that the government is amending the Reserve List system to make land supply more responsive.

Under the system, additional sites are provided, on top of those in the Confirmed List, to ensure adequate supply to meet any surge in demand.

With immediate effect, the required deposit for developers who trigger such sites will be reduced from five percent to three percent of the minimum price, capped at $5 million.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the reduced deposit will help cut down upfront cost and the cash flow burden of the successful applicants when they put sites on the reserve list.

Also, the government will immediately consider releasing another Reserve List site for sale if there is more than one company that submits a minimum bid price that is close to the reserve price set by the government.

Mr. Mah added that previously, a reserve list site was put up for sale if a developer submitted a minimum bid that matched or exceeded the reserve price.

The government will also release a wider variety and larger supply of sites in the Reserve List by the second half of 2010, to give property developers more choices.