How do you say GOODBYE in MANDARIN? Chinese investment - massive drop

The Commonwealth and State Governments have killed foreign investment in nearly every way possible. Introducing FIRB fees, changing FIRB blanket approvals, making finance near impossible, imposing additional duty, and absentee/vacant land tax just to name some of the measures.

 

It is not the easy for foreigners to borrow from SG banks to buy property in Australia. You need to have good income (six figures which will put you in the top 15-20 percent there). You also need to have larger deposit mostly min 30%. Rate is low if borrow in Sing dollar but the risk is currency fluctuation and exchange fee (converting rent money in AUD to mortgage money in SGD). If borrow in AUD, rate is high.

And no you are not correct about property ownership in Singapore. You still can buy other property after you own an HDB, but it needs to be a private one (condo). Otherwise, why there are so many HDBs for rent in SG? Stamp duty for 2nd, 3rd, ... IP is pretty high there though.

Yes it is true that the low income and lower middle class in SG are not rich, especially compared to the same groups of people here in Australia. But do not underestimate the level of wealth in the upper middle class and upper class there. If you look at the GDP per capita, SG is even higher than AU although there is a large number of Singaporeans who do not earn much and just get by on a daily basis. The wealth gap in SG is very big. The top earners there earn a lot and pay much let tax.

 

well said, "protecting domestic buyers" is not a bad idea, however, is killing all foreign investment the only way to address the domestic housing issue?

the ramification of drastic reduction in foreign investment in such a short time is yet to be seen, won't be pretty.

or have these sort of policies from different levels of governments been really thoroughly considered, or are they voter pleasing/grabing movements?

time will tell.

 

I’m pretty sure wherever foreign investment withdraws it will be quickly filled by local buyers eager to get into the market. This should be true with some exceptions, for example where sales were significantly overvalued because foreign investors didn’t know the actual market.

So not an issue I believe.