The tax rate for houses up to $1.5 million remains unchanged, while the stamp duty on the portion between $1.5 million and $3 million has been increased to 5% and that on the portion above $3 million to 6%. Applies to everyone.
Property transactions with an OTP date of today and before today and that can be executed before March 7 are not affected and are subject to the old rates.
Experience from actual property transactions shows that properties up to $1.5 million correspond to the majority of the working class, which includes all HDB transactions and most mass condominium transactions.
Properties between $1.5 million and $3 million are in the middle end of the market, where buyers are generally higher income earners who are not considering HDB flats, and the impact of this tax rate adjustment will not be significant.
Properties above $3 million are at the high end of the market, and the higher the value of the property, the greater the impact.
As an example.
Under $1.5 million will not be affected.
Buyers of $2 million will have to pay an extra 5,000 in stamp duty, an increase of 8%.
A $3 million buyer will pay an additional 15,000 in stamp duty, an increase of 14%.
5 million buyers will pay an additional 55,000 stamp duty, an increase of 30%.
10 million buyers will pay an additional 155,000 in stamp duty, an increase of 40%.
A buyer of 20 million will pay an additional 455,000 in stamp duty, an increase of 46%.
This government rate will have no impact on most ordinary people, but will succeed in collecting a lot more money from a few wealthy people.
It's a mini-cooling policy of sorts for the condo market, with the more expensive projects being affected.
Kopar downtown, for example, has introduced an emergency 2% promotion tonight in the hope of walking away with a wave of sales overnight.
Terra Hill, which was opening for preview, tried to open some units early at one point but eventually gave up, although it is believed that the developer is seriously considering re-setting the opening price.