How did Singapore's Cooling Measures Impact Malaysia's Property Sector? (Dec 2011)

On 7th Dec 2011, the Singapore government announced that it would impose an Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) to moderate investment demand for private residential property and promote a more stable and sustainable market. This is needed in view of the stubbornly high inflation rate in Singapore amidst the slowing demand from developed markets. For those who don't know, inflation rate in Singapore was mainly contributed by surging property prices.

The ABSD was effective 8 Dec 2011. After the announcement, property-related stocks slumped last week, following by a slump in banking stocks because of an expected slower housing loan growth. The latest measures are a near-term negative for property developers with an anticipated trend in lower average selling prices and transactional volumes, which will hurt profitability. Nevertheless, most large-cap property developers in Singapore are relatively well diversified, not just across sectors (industrial and commercial), but also geographically.

Under the latest cooling measure, the ABSD will be added on top of the current Buyer's Stamp Duty, and apply to the purchase price or market value of the property (whichever is higher) according to the type of purchase as below:

1. ABSD of 10% for foreigners and corporate entities buying any residential property
2. ABSD of 3% for permanent residents who already own one property, and buying the 2nd and subsequent residential property
3. ABSD of 3% for Singaporean citizens who already own 2 properties, and buying the 3rd and subsequent residential property.

What's the Impact on Malaysian Property Sector and Developers?

Because of our closely linked economies, some of our property players already ventured into Singapore property market, such as Sunway, SP Setia, IOI Corp and YTL Land. According to OSK research report, Sunway has 4 ongoing projects with a total GDV of around SGD1.7bn under its 30:70 joint venture with Ho Hup Group and a small wholly owned project with at GDV of SGD32.8m. Two of the projects, which are under the Executive Condo (EC) and Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), are exempted from the ABSD. While the remaining three ongoing projects, coupled with another upcoming project (GDV: SGD357m), are under private development (PD) which is subjected to the ABSD. However, with its ongoing PD projects already achieving a strong take-up rate at around 70%, we believe the impact on Sunway will be rather minimal.

Sector wise, Finance Malaysia believes that there will be a in-flowing of money to our shore given its proximity to Singapore, coupled with the attractively packaged Johor's Iskandar Development Region (IDR). This would be a timely process where IDR is gaining traction with basic infrastructures were almost completed. Those developers which had already jumping into IDR may benefits from the announcement. Tebrau Teguh, being one of the most sensitive stocks linked with IDR may see some buying interest. 

Asia property sector to deteriorate?

A combination of excess liquidity, low interest rates and a robust macroeconomic outlook has pushed prices up over the last few years. As a result, housing affordability for low and middle income families has worsened across the region, with low interest rate slightly cushioning the adverse effect of higher prices. Several central banks have intervened and introduced regulatory measures - such as higher minimum down payments (etc. Msia) and more land releases for construction (etc. Singapore) - to cool down the markets and slow credit expansion.

Within a specific market, the prime segment should hold up better than the mass-market segment. Should the real estate market correct instead, steep corrections for the mass segment are unlikely because of the following reasons:

1. Rental Yields still appear attractive in the current low interest rate environment;
2. Residential vacancy rates are low in many Asian cities, especially in Hong Kong and Singapore (not in the case for Msia);
3. Governments are well aware of the potential negative spillover effects of a strong housing market downturn to the overall economy. Thus, they are more proactive in making monetary decision to juggle between tightening or loosing the monetary policies.