The latest set of government measures to cool the property market will not affect genuine buyers and are intended to develop a “sustainable” market, said Mrs. Lim Hwee Hua, the Second Minister for Finance and Transport.
“What will be sustainable is property purchases or price increases that is justified by the amount of wealth that a person has,” said Mrs. Lim at a post-National Day Rally dialogue for women grassroots leaders. “What is not sustainable is when people borrow from banks to speculate. What we want to do is to take out this speculative activity. The main thing is to make sure banks don't lend unnecessarily, that people don't get easy access to money. Genuine buyers will not be affected by this.”
When asked about the effect on property prices from foreign investors, Mrs. Lim said the measures are not meant to ban foreign investors from the real estate market.
“Closing the doors on foreigners doesn't necessarily mean we will have a better market. Because that would mean we would be buying among ourselves and the market could stay very down if it's only all local owners,” she said.
Under the new rules, homebuyers will benefit from an increased supply of HDB flats, and the income cap adjustment will address problems of those in the “sandwich group”.
Mrs. Lim said the measures aim to maintain the affordability of flats and give more choices to those in the “sandwich group” as they can already opt to buy DBSS or EC flats.
