Thursday, December 4, 2008

No New Site For Land Sales

Source : The Straits Times, Dec 4, 2008

THE Government is not adding any new sites to its land sales programme for the first half of next year, given the continuing weak global economic outlook.

The Government is not adding any new sites to its land sales programme for the first half of next year, given the continuing weak global economic outlook. -- ST FILE PHOTO

It is also offering less commercial space. And there will not be any new supply of private home units from Government agencies, outside of the land sales programme.

'The global economic outlook is likely to remain weak in 2009 and this would have an impact on Singapore's economy, including the property market,' said the Ministry of National Development in a statement on Thursday.

This means that there will only be 'reserve list' sites available for sale in the first half of 2009. Such sites will only be put up for tender if a developer indicates interest in it by submitting a minimum bid that the Government finds acceptable.

A total of 38 sites are available on the reserve list, of which 37 are carried over from the reserve list for the second half of this year, and one is the unsold executive condominium site in Punggol. The unsold EC site was from the confirmed list, which meant that it was for outright sale but there was no demand.

At the start of last month, the Government already announced that it will be suspending outright land sales in the first half of next year. It was to stave off the risk of oversupply given the weak property market outlook.

Developers, who prefer the reserve list system as it allows them to adjust supply to meet demand, had cheered the move.

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