Policy before and after · Macroprudential

Event

Singapore raises ABSD, tightens housing finance and extends cooling measures to public housing, executive condominiums and industrial property

Announced 11 January 2013 · Effective 12 January 2013

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Comparison window

Comparison anchored to effective date: 12 January 2013. Before: 13 December 2012 to 11 January 2013. After: 12 January 2013 to 10 February 2013. The same 30 days on each side; the anchor day counts as after.

Before · 13 Dec 2012 to 11 Jan 2013

3 land-sales awards

7 land-sales steps in all
0 other archive events

The event

Announced 11 Jan 2013

Effective 12 Jan 2013

The effective date is the anchor.

After · 12 Jan 2013 to 10 Feb 2013

3 land-sales awards

6 land-sales steps in all
All 30 days observable

What this comparison can and cannot show

Generated from this window's records

Recorded

5 verified claims on this event record a before and an after value.
3 land-sales awards in the 30 days before the effective date, and 3 in the 30 observable days after.
None of the 4 tracked series has a whole period on both sides of a 30-day window, so no market figure is compared.

Cannot be concluded

That this event moved any figure on this page. The comparison is by date; nothing here is attributed to the event.
A reading of the concurrent land sales and events as responses to this one. They are listed by date alone.

About this eventIssuing authority, category, affected market, primary source, summary

Announced: 11 January 2013
Effective: 12 January 2013
Issuing authority: Monetary Authority of Singapore, Ministry of National Development, Ministry of Finance, Housing & Development Board
Category: Macroprudential
Affected market: Private residential property, HDB flats, executive condominiums and industrial property. Buyer stamp duties, housing-loan limits, mortgage servicing, public-housing ownership and subletting, EC development and sales rules, and industrial seller stamp duty.
Primary source: Additional Measures to Ensure a Stable and Sustainable Property Market. Joint press release, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of National Development, Monetary Authority of Singapore and Ministry of Trade and Industry, 11 January 2013, complete with Annex I on ABSD, Annex II on LTV and cash, Annex III on public housing and Annex IV on lease-dependent CPF and HDB loan rules.

On 11 January 2013 Singapore raised Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty on every group already subject to it and extended it to Permanent Residents buying a first residential property and citizens buying a second, reduced loan-to-value limits and raised the minimum cash payment from 10% to 25% for borrowers with an outstanding housing loan, introduced a 30% Mortgage Servicing Ratio for financial-institution loans used to buy HDB flats, cut the HDB concessionary-loan MSR from 40% to 35%, restricted Permanent Resident subletting and ownership of HDB flats, tightened executive condominium rules, and introduced Seller's Stamp Duty on industrial property for the first time.

In brief

3 GLS site awards were recorded in the before window and 3 in the after window.

What changed

No policy matrix is recorded for this event. These are its verified claims that store a before and an after value.

As recorded in the claim	Before	After	Change	Source
Minimum cash for a second or subsequent housing loan, raised from 10%.	10%	25%	+15 pts	Claim 3
ABSD on foreign and entity purchases, raised from 10%.	10%	15%	+5 pts	Claim 2
Loan-to-value limits were reduced for borrowers with outstanding housing loans: second housing loan from 60% to 50%, third or subsequent from 60% to 40%, and non-individual borrowers from 40% to 20%.	40%	20%	−20 pts	Claim 6
HDB reduced the Mortgage Servicing Ratio for its concessionary loans from 40% to 35%.	40%	35%	−5 pts	Claim 5

View all 5 before-and-after values

ABSD on a citizen's second residential property, previously zero.

0%

7%

+7 pts

Claim 1

Observed around this event

View linked outcomes

The same statistic over the 30 days before and after the anchor. Figures describe what was recorded in each window; they do not attribute a change to this event.

Singapore private residential transactions, all types of sale

units · Total over whole quarterly periods inside each 30-day window

Before

None

Coverage 0/30 days

After

None

Coverage 0/30 days

Difference

Not stated

No whole quarterly period of this series falls inside either window, so no comparison is stated. A longer window may contain one.

Provenance

Source: Urban Redevelopment Authority
Series kind: FLOW
Basis: Observation periods wholly inside each window, values as originally recorded.
Origin: Calculated (sum of published period values)
Shown because: Mapped to this kind of event

Private Residential Property Price Index, All Residential

index (2009Q1=100) · Value in the latest whole quarterly period inside each 30-day window

Before

None

Coverage 0/30 days

After

None

Coverage 0/30 days

Difference

Not stated

No whole quarterly period of this series falls inside either window, so no comparison is stated. A longer window may contain one.

Provenance

Source: Urban Redevelopment Authority
Series kind: INDEX
Basis: Observation periods wholly inside each window, values as originally recorded.
Origin: Source fact (latest whole period)
Shown because: Mapped to this kind of event

HDB Resale Price Index

index (2009Q1=100) · Value in the latest whole quarterly period inside each 30-day window

Before

None

Coverage 0/30 days

After

None

Coverage 0/30 days

Difference

Not stated

No whole quarterly period of this series falls inside either window, so no comparison is stated. A longer window may contain one.

Provenance

Source: Housing & Development Board
Series kind: INDEX
Basis: Observation periods wholly inside each window, values as originally recorded.
Origin: Source fact (latest whole period)
Shown because: Mapped to this kind of event

URA Private Residential Property Price Index, all residential properties, level (1Q2009 = 100)

index

Comparison unavailable: series aggregation type is unresolved.

Provenance

Source: Urban Redevelopment Authority
Series kind: Unresolved (not recorded)
Basis: Observation periods wholly inside each window, values as originally recorded.
Origin: Unresolved
Shown because: Cited by this event's own outcomes

Concurrent planning and land activity

Land sales and other archive events dated inside the windows, listed by date only. Each land-sales line shows the site as the record stood on that day.

Before the effective date

7 lines

7 land-sales steps (3 awards) · 0 archive events

From the effective date

7 lines

6 land-sales steps (3 awards) · 1 archive event

Explore concurrent events

Before (7)

13 December 2012 · Land sales
Sembawang Crescent / Sembawang Drive: Tender closed
Executive Condominium housing · status on 13 December 2012: Tender closed, award pending
17 December 2012 · Land sales
Sembawang Crescent / Sembawang Drive: Awarded
Executive Condominium housing · status on 17 December 2012: Awarded · awarded to JBE Holdings Pte Ltd at S$211,920,000
17 December 2012 · Land sales
Alexandra Road / Alexandra View: Awarded
Residential · status on 17 December 2012: Awarded · awarded to Singland Homes Pte. Ltd. at S$332,680,000
18 December 2012 · Land sales
Commonwealth Avenue: Launched for tender
Condominium; or Flats; or, with prior written approval, a combination of Flats and Strata Landed Houses (Serviced Apartments are not allowed) · status on 18 December 2012: Tender open
19 December 2012 · Land sales
Venture Avenue: Launched for tender
Commercial (with minimum component for office use) · status on 19 December 2012: Tender open
8 January 2013 · Land sales
Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2 / Ang Mo Kio Street 13: Tender closed
Residential · status on 8 January 2013: Tender closed, award pending
9 January 2013 · Land sales
Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2 / Ang Mo Kio Street 13: Awarded
Residential · status on 9 January 2013: Awarded · awarded to Pinehill Investments Pte. Ltd. at S$550,000,048

After (7)

24 January 2013 · Land sales
Yishun Ring Road / Yishun Avenue 9: Tender closed
Mixed commercial and residential · status on 24 January 2013: Tender closed, award pending
29 January 2013 · Land sales
Jurong West Street 41: Tender closed
Residential · status on 29 January 2013: Tender closed, award pending
31 January 2013 · Land sales
Yishun Ring Road / Yishun Avenue 9: Awarded
Mixed commercial and residential · status on 31 January 2013: Awarded · awarded to CEL Property Pte Ltd at S$212,100,000
31 January 2013 · Land sales
Jurong West Street 41: Awarded
Residential · status on 31 January 2013: Awarded · awarded to MCL Land (Prestige) Pte. Ltd. at S$438,888,000
31 January 2013 · Planning
Singapore's Land Use Plan sets out up to 700,000 new homes and 76,600 hectares of land by 2030
Announced 31 January 2013
5 February 2013 · Land sales
Commonwealth Avenue: Tender closed
Condominium; or Flats; or, with prior written approval, a combination of Flats and Strata Landed Houses (Serviced Apartments are not allowed) · status on 5 February 2013: Tender closed, award pending
7 February 2013 · Land sales
Commonwealth Avenue: Awarded
Condominium; or Flats; or, with prior written approval, a combination of Flats and Strata Landed Houses (Serviced Apartments are not allowed) · status on 7 February 2013: Awarded · awarded to Intrepid Investments Pte Ltd, Verwood Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Hong Realty (Private) Limited at S$562,818,171

Recorded relationships

Singapore cuts the EC cancellation fee to 5%, adds a resale levy for second-timers and caps MSR at 30% on EC bank loans has as its direct predecessor this event.

Methodology5 rules

Comparison anchored to effective date: 12 January 2013. The anchor is the effective date where one is recorded, otherwise the announcement date.
The windows are the same number of days on each side of the anchor, and the anchor day belongs to the after window.
A series counts toward a window only for observation periods wholly inside it, with values as originally recorded, not as later revised.
Where no whole period falls inside a window, no value and no difference is stated; a day no whole period covers is missing, never zero.
Concurrent land sales and archive events are listed by date alone. Nothing on this page is attributed to the event.

Sources

The event's sources (5)

Primary sources4

Additional Measures to Ensure a Stable and Sustainable Property Market. Joint press release, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of National Development, Monetary Authority of Singapore and Ministry of Trade and Industry, 11 January 2013, complete with Annex I on ABSD, Annex II on LTV and cash, Annex III on public housing and Annex IV on lease-dependent CPF and HDB loan rules.
Ministry of Finance · Primary source · Published 11 January 2013
Open original source
MAS Notice 825, Residential Property Loans (Finance Companies), issued 27 August 2013, effective 28 August 2013. Cited as the current consolidated version, last revised 21 August 2025.
Monetary Authority of Singapore · Primary source · Published 27 August 2013
Open original source
HDB Resale Price Index, quarterly official dataset, 1990-Q1 to 2026-Q2. Retrieved 14 August 2026 via the data.gov.sg datastore API. Final index values, not flash estimates.
Housing & Development Board · Primary source · Published 14 August 2026
Open original source
URA Private Residential Property Price Index By Type Of Property, quarterly, base 1Q2009 = 100. SingStat TableBuilder table M212261, Residential Properties series, 206 quarters 1975-Q1 to 2026-Q2. Retrieved 14 August 2026 via the open TableBuilder API.
Urban Redevelopment Authority · Primary source · Published 14 August 2026
Open original source

Supporting sources1

Knight Frank Singapore Residential Research Quarterly Bulletin, Q1 2013. Supporting industry source for monthly developer-sales figures and contemporaneous market interpretation.
The Business Times · Secondary source · Published 1 April 2013
Original source link unavailable

Event checked against its primary sources on 14 August 2026. Each claim keeps its own verification status.

Observed series come from the published statistics named on each card. Land-sales lines link to the site record and its releases.