New development charges on SG’s non-landed residential sites
New development charges on SG’s non-landed residential sites
Thanks in part to impressive bids for government land
For the first time in two years, the Singaporean government has raised development charges on sites meant for non-landed residential projects.
The charges, levied by the Ministry of National Development on property developers and reassessed every six months, will increase by 2.7 percent on average throughout the country. Seventy-nine sectors in the city-state will have the same rate schedule as before, while 39 sectors will experience hikes anywhere between 5 and 12 percent.
Singapore’s sector 48, an area that covers such locations as River Valley, Kim Yam Road, Martin Road, and Mohamed Sultan Road, will bear the heftiest increases at 12.2 percent.
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The new taxes can be attributed to record bids for several sites in the city identified for Government Land Sales (GLS). In sector 48, a residential GLS site in Martin Place recently sold to GuocoLand for SGD595.1 million (USD436.5 million) or SGD1,239 (USD909) per square foot per plot ratio.
“These strong bids were a reflection of tightened land supply this year, which came as many developers are running out or have run out of inventory,” Karamjit Singh, Jones Lang LaSalle Singapore’s head of residential division, explained to the Straits Times.
“While it would be safer to depend on the property price index to see if there is any bottoming in property prices, the propping up of implied land values now could signal that price corrections may not be so evident going forward,” said Desmond Sim, CBRE research head for Singapore and South-east Asia.
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Source: Property Report