Shares of Singapore property developers fell Thursday amid fresh property-market cooling measures designed to rein in rising home prices, with analysts saying new taxes could curb property buying by foreigners in the city-state.
City Developments Ltd.'s stock fell as much as 4.1% but pared losses to trade 3.0% lower by the midday break. UOL Group Ltd. declined 1.3%, Oxley Holdings Ltd. fell 2.7% and Frasers Property Ltd. lost 1.7%.
Analysts said the government moves, which raise purchase taxes known as additional buyer's stamp duty on second and subsequent homes for citizens and permanent residents, could mean developers could face lower residential-unit sales in 2022. Real-estate consultancy CBRE lowered its forecast for Singapore's new home sales to 9,000-10,000 units in 2022 from 13,000 previously.
The new measures are also likely to hurt foreigners' demand for Singapore properties, potentially cutting foreign-capital inflows into the residential space, said Savills Singapore head of research and consultancy Alan Cheong.
The new rules raise the home purchase tax for foreigners buying any residential property to 30% from 20%.
The effect on domestic homebuying sentiment is likely to be less negative, he said, given that most local home buyers would be buying first properties. Purchase taxes for first homes remain unchanged at 0% for Singapore citizens and 5% for permanent residents.
"There is nothing alarming about this [purchase tax] rate of increase because there should still be heightened levels of inflationary tailwinds next year," he added. He said that property-market cooling measures introduced in 2018 were already holding back a "tidal wave" of demand.
CBRE forecasts residential property prices to be in the range of flat to 3% higher in 2022. Savills expects home prices to rise 7%, in line with its expectations for Singapore's nominal GDP growth.