While Singapore welcomes investors, the city-state is no place speculators. This comes as the property cooling measures rolled out by the government in July 2018 achieved what it had set out to do – stabilise the property cycle, reported Bloomberg.
“A speculator may not be happy, because they would like to go in when the price is low and exit when the price is high and flip. But we don’t want to be a nation of property speculators. We want to be a nation of homeowners,” said Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong.
Prior to the introduction of the cooling measures, the property market saw “prices rising very sharply”.
“There was a very real risk that prices would outpace fundamentals, and I think if that had happened then eventually it would lead to a destabilizing correction and I think everybody would be worse off,” he said.
“It was, as we had stressed then, not to bring down prices but to stabilize and moderate the cycle, and I think we have achieved that effect.”
When asked if he was concerned that property buyers would look to Hong Kong, where property prices are always on the uptrend, instead of Singapore, Wong explained that there will always be foreign investors planning to acquire a property, which they believe is a good investment.
“We welcome investors to our property market, but what we want to ensure is that demand, regardless whether it’s local demand or foreign demand, doesn’t cause the prices to move at a pace that outstrips fundamentals.”
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
