Things about Private Residence's cooling measures

With the new cooling down measures that our government implements recently, there are a few things that we may need to be aware of before investing in private residential properties (e.g. landed bungalows, semi-d, terrace house, condos, etc).

• Seller's Stamp Duty (SSD) is now imposed on residential properties sold within 3 years (used to be 1 year this Feb). [I think it's to encourage the residential properties owner to hold their properties for longer duration so as to reduce speculation]
• Within 1 year - Full SSD
• Between 1 to 2 years - 2/3 SSD
• Between 2 to 3 years - 1/3 SSD
• According to one of my mentors, the SSD is calculated from the date the Option to Purchase is being exercised. So do take note on that if you didn't want to incur the fees. Because it's a date that few people will remember.
• For property buyers with 1 or more outstanding  housing loans
• There's also a new rule that increased the minimum cash payment from 5% to 10%. [So more cash is required to buy such properties, especially for property investors, those CPF richer investors with less cash on hand will need to be aware of this]
• The loan amount has dropped from 80% to 70% [So now, more CPF or cash is required for down-payment. As a result, those that didn't have enough cash or CPF due to the new rules may take longer to enter the market]
• Overseas private property investors will need to take note that having such properties directly under their names will affect their eligibility in buying even resale HDB flats, as they will need to sell off their overseas property within 6 months. (The same goes for locate private property owners.)

Although the price hasn't drop yet, but I think with the new measures, it should decrease gradually until the market is more stabilize and sustainable. During the course I attended on Saturday, one of the instructors mentioned that due to this ruling, our stock market went up as funds are redirected. Hence, I think if that's the case, when those investors accumulate enough funds through whichever other means of investments, like the stock market, the redirection of such funds back into the property market might probably affect the stock market more than the property market, due to the liquidity level of stocks. Which means, the stock market might become even more fluctuating.

I personally do hope that our government can release the new measures much earlier than on the effective date itself so that we can have more emotional preparation when the time comes. So that it's a more gradual process.

Reference:
Measures to Maintain a Stable and Sustainable Property Market