No Property-Cooling Measures On The Horizon, Says Mah

Source : The Business Times, July 31, 2007

Government puts faith in market forces but will keep an eye on prices

The government does not seem inclined to roll out measures to cool the property market - at least in the near future.

'We prefer to let market forces work,' Minister of National Development (MND) Mah Bow Tan said yesterday.

It was the government's clearest response yet to recent market talk that cooling measures could be in the works.

On the sidelines of MND's inaugural Joint Scholarship Presentation Ceremony yesterday, Mr Mah was asked if the government was likely to announce measures to cool the property market. He said: 'We will try to avoid interfering in the market if we can.'

While the government is mindful of maintaining Singapore's price competitiveness, it prefers to do this by keeping supply ready and by keeping the market better informed.

To this end, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) recently released median rentals for residential, office and retail sectors.

Along with the new monthly data on developers' sales numbers and prices, the median rental data is expected to alleviate fears that property prices are spiralling out of control. Mr Mah added: 'The data shows that property is still affordable and not as high as the headline numbers in media reports.'

In the data that was released by URA last week, sub-sale numbers had also increased considerably from 749 in Q1 to 1,254 in Q2. But this is still sustainable. 'If you look at the numbers, it's a long distance from (the previous peak of) 1996,' Mr Mah pointed out.

It will not, however, be entirely laissez-faire as far as prices go.

One of the government's chief concerns now is maintaining price competitiveness with other Asian capitals like Hong Kong and Tokyo. Mr Mah said that the government was confident of 'moderating prices'. He added: 'We will push out supply (of land) if there is a need.'

'The government will keep a close eye,' he stressed.

But again, Mr Mah tempered this comment by saying that the number of sites on the current Government Land Sales programme was adequate.

There will be a supply crunch in the residential sector in the short term, Mr Mah said, and reiterated that the government would look at interim measures to alleviate this.

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) already said last week that it would offer about 120 flats selected for Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers), but not redeveloped yet, to the public in the short term. If these prove popular, Mr Mah said that, 'there are a few thousand units under the Sers programme that are not ready for redevelopment yet'.

DBS Vickers analyst Wallace Chu said he was 'comforted somewhat' by Mr Mah's comments. 'At least a direction is set,' he added