Under the new regulations, developers are required to conduct risk profiling of buyers, carry out customer due diligence (CDD), report any suspicious transactions to the authorities, and keep records related to the investigations for at least five years.

Developers who do not comply with the new regulations will face a fine not exceeding $100,000 dollars. Developers who are found to have facilitated such transactions may also be prosecuted or even jailed.

This policy may result in increased costs for developers. However, it is not expected that they will pass on the costs to buyers, leading to a further rise in property prices.

The new policy is designed to avoid the inflow of illegal funds into the local property market, which will help improve the stability of the local property market in the long run. In order to cool down the property market, the Singaporean government raised the stamp duty on home purchases across the board overnight in April this year, and foreigners even had to pay 60% of the tax.

The introduction of a series of policies is due to the fact that the Singaporean property market is too crazy, not only the prices of luxury properties make people cry out incredibly.

Just a few days ago, a HDB flat in Singapore broke the resale price record again!

Singapore property prices have been rising year after year, and people are getting more and more careful when they buy properties here, and they are also paying more attention to the amenities, conveniences, and the duration of the deed of the property. However, a 4-room HDB flat with only 49 years of lease, no elevator and still on the top floor was sold for S$1.5 million this month, directly breaking the record for the highest HDB resale price!

Why?

According to 99.co, the unit is located on the 4th floor (that's the top floor) of Big Brand 50 HDB Flats in Moh Guan Terrace. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Since the lease of HDB flats in Singapore is basically 99 years, the remaining lease of this "old HDB flat" built in 1973 is only 48 years and 8 months.

Coupled with architectural design issues, this HDB flat has not been installed with an elevator so far (and probably won't be in the future), and the 4-storey building is not too high, not too low, but the elevator is still more energy-efficient to get in and out of the building every day. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

In line with the demand in the real estate market, the fewer the deeds, the lower the prices tend to be. Presumably, the biggest selling point of this unit is - it's big. ‍‍

Back in the 1990s, the Singapore government agreed for HDB homeowners to buy small (3-roomed) neighboring flats and combine them into one large flat. In this way, many of the large flats are comparable in size to a regular 5-room type.

This unit at Moyuan Terrace is one of them, with a combined area of 1,894 sq ft (176 sq m), which is super spacious for a 4-room flat. It should be noted that HDB's current 4-room flats are about 1,000 sq ft (93 sq m). ‍

In fact, the price of this set of flats is not expensive, compared to other resale flats in the same area in Tiong Bahru with an average price of S$839, Maunsell Terrace's price is only about S$792, and it is able to sell at a high price solely due to the advantage of its super large area.

Before Maunsell Terrace broke the record, the first place came from Dusit Court, a netflix HDB flat that was clocked by JJ Lim, which sold a high-rise flat for S$1.418 million back in July 2022, and also set a new high resale price for a five-roomed HDB flat.

As Singapore's current pre-purchase HDB flats (BTO) can only be purchased by citizens, the waiting time for delivery is longer, and resale HDB flats (which can be purchased by married Singapore Permanent Residents), which have much more lenient purchasing conditions, are also popular with many people. ‍‍‍‍

According to data released by HDB, resale HDB home prices in Singapore have risen for 13 consecutive quarters and 38 months since the first quarter of 2020.

According to the United Daily News, "About 68% of three-room HDB flats changed hands for less than $400,000 in the first 10 months of HDB resale transactions in 2021; 75% of four-room HDB flats resold between $400,000 and $599,999; and 76% of five-room and larger HDB flats resold between $500,000 and $799,999. "

For Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents who want to buy a readymade home in Singapore, resale HDB flats are not all that expensive to compare and consider. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ Mr. José María González