Rules won’t hit HDB flats

THE just-announced seller’s stamp duty, which will be imposed on all residential lands and homes bought before Saturday and sold within a year, will not apply to Housing Board flats, said the Government on Friday.

This is because HDB flats are already subject to a minimum one-year occupation ruling.

The Government said the new tax measure is to ‘discourage short-term speculative activity that could distort underlying prices’, and it is not targeted at the purchase of properties for owner-occupation or longer term investment.

Loans granted by the HDB for its flats, including the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), will still continue to be capped at 90 per cent because they are subject to other criteria to prevent speculation and encourage financial prudence, said the Government.

HDB loans are offered to only eligible first-time flat buyers or second-timers who are upgrading. And they are required to use all of their CPF Ordinary Account balance before HDB would give them the loans, which is in line with HDB’s home ownership policy of helping eligible buyers, especially first-time buyers, to purchase public housing in a financially prudent manner.

But for all other housing loans provided by financial institutions regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, they will be capped at 80 per cent of the property purchase price, instead of the current 90 per cent, from Saturday.

Source : Straits Times – 19 Feb 2010