TODAY, 2 Mar 2013
There are still “some ways to go” before property prices are at an acceptable level, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday.
“We’re still in a wrong part of the cycle,” he said, adding that bringing prices to an acceptable level will happen “through a combination of income improvement, as well as prices certainly not going up further, but some correction in prices will not be out of order”.
Mr Tharman’s comments come after the Government introduced a further round of property cooling measures in January to take more heat off the market, which has seen prices keep climbing upwards.
The impact of the measures has yet to be seen, with market watchers cautioning that it might not be until this month or April before it is clear how prices and demand have been affected.
Meanwhile, property analysts were divided on whether the Government might be inclined to introduce more cooling measures if prices continue to rise.
Noting that Mr Tharman said in his Budget speech that no effort will be spared to resolve the housing issue, Mr Steve Melhuish, Co-Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of PropertyGuru, said: “The Government certainly won’t hesitate to intervene if the property market faces threats of a bubble similar to that of Hong Kong and China and there is a chance we could see more curbs if the market does not see an appreciable price correction.”
However, Mr Alan Cheong, head of research at Savills Singapore, said it is unlikely that the Government will add any further cooling measures in the foreseeable future, although Mr Tharman’s comments in the interview may act as a partial brake on the market as they indicate the Government is keeping a close eye on the situation.
Mr Colin Tan, Head of Research and Consultancy at Chesterton Suntec International, added that it appears that Mr Tharman’s chief concern is to make homes more affordable to Singaporeans.
“He is quite happy for this to happen via a rise in general incomes levels or a correction in property prices,” he said.
“I take this to mean that the cooling measures — both in the past and probably in the future — are not crafted simply to force a price correction but more to tame market sentiment.”
In the interview, Mr Tharman also said that the Government has to limit property price gains because of the social impact when people cannot afford to buy homes.
He added that “we can prevent a real bubble from being formed which then eventually crashes, and that’s our objective”.
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