Singapore lowers the ABSD clawback for housing developers that sell at least 90% of units on time

From 16 February 2024 a licensed housing developer that sells at least 90% but less than 100% of the units in a development within the sale timeline has less of its remitted ABSD clawed back, provided it meets the commencement and completion conditions.

A new threshold, so no before-value is stored. Before 16 February 2024 any shortfall from selling every unit lost the whole remission, and there was no partial threshold to move. The share is of units of housing accommodation, not of floor area or sales value, and it is rounded down. At 100% nothing is clawed back and rule 6 does not apply. The sale timeline is 5 years from the acquisition date, or 5 years and 6 months for instruments on or before 1 June 2020 under rule 3(2B); IRAS says that where a later extension applies, the share is assessed at the end of the extended timeline.

For land bought on or after 16 December 2021, a developer that has sold 90% of the units within the sale timeline has 34% of the land consideration clawed back, against 35% before 16 February 2024.

A percentage of the land consideration, not of the ABSD. The 35% is the whole upfront remission for this regime, so a 1-point reduction leaves 34. The figure assumes the commencement and completion timelines are met, as the release's table caption states, and leaves out the interest of 5% a year, which IRAS's table footnote says its rates do not include. Under rule 6(3) of the Rules the same result is a further remission of 1% of the consideration.

For land bought on or after 16 December 2021, a developer that has sold 99% of the units within the sale timeline has 25% of the land consideration clawed back, against 35% before 16 February 2024.

The deepest reduction available, 10 percentage points. A development one unit short of selling out still repays most of its remission. Excludes interest. The Rules give the same result as a further remission of 10% of the consideration.

For land bought from 6 July 2018 to 15 December 2021, the clawback runs from 24% of the land consideration at 90% of units sold down to 15% at 99% sold, against 25% before 16 February 2024.

The stored pair is the 90% row only, because one record holds one pair; the 99% row reads 15 and is stated in the claim text. These sites carried 30% ABSD, of which 25% was remitted upfront. Excludes interest.

The clawback does not scale with the share of units left unsold: on land bought from 16 December 2021, a developer that has sold 95% of units still has 29% of the land consideration clawed back.

Not pro-rated. The figure is the table's; the opening clause is a plain reading of it, since each whole percent sold above 89 lowers the clawback by one point of the consideration whatever the number of units left. A pro-rata reading, the 5% of units unsold applied to the 35% remitted, would give a clawback about sixteen times smaller, and no source supports it. The reading is recorded here because it is the common one.

A development with fewer than 90% of units sold within the sale timeline still has the whole remitted ABSD clawed back, 35% of the consideration for land bought from 16 December 2021 and 25% for land bought from 6 July 2018 to 15 December 2021.

A statement of continuity. The stored pair is the later regime's rate, unchanged. Carried so the other side of the threshold is on the page.

A clawed-back remission continues to bear interest at 5% a year.

Not in the rules. Neither S 95/2024 nor the consolidated remission Rules as transcribed state an interest rate. IRAS places it in the written undertaking the developer gives, running from 14 days after the acquisition date, and its table footnote says the clawback rates exclude it. No source says from what date interest runs on a reduced clawback.

IRAS described the change as reducing the remission clawed back by 1 to 10 percentage points, depending on the proportion of units sold at the five-year mark.

Points of the land consideration, from 1 at 90% sold to 10 at 99% sold. Not a percentage reduction of the clawback itself.

The amended Rules grant a further remission of (A minus B)% of the consideration, where A is the percentage of units sold within the sale timeline and B is 89%.

The rules state a remission, not a clawback rate. What is clawed back is the upfront remission less this further remission: 35 minus (A minus 89) on land bought from 16 December 2021, and 25 minus (A minus 89) on land bought from 6 July 2018 to 15 December 2021. That reconciles exactly with every row of the release's Table 1. B is not the threshold; the threshold is 90% in rule 6(1)(c), and 89 is subtracted so that 90% sold earns one point. Rule 7 uses the same B for amalgamated sites.

The percentage of units sold is rounded down to the nearest whole percent before the reduced clawback is worked out.

Down, never to the nearest. A development at 89.9% sold counts as 89% and loses the whole remission; one at 99.9% counts as 99%, not 100%. The rounding examples are arithmetic on the rule, not text from the source.

IRAS states that land bought before 6 July 2018 is outside the reduced clawback because those projects already faced a lower clawback rate of 15% and developers had had sufficient time to sell their units.

No structured value: the 15% is the older regime's rate as IRAS describes it, not a parameter this measure set or moved. The reason is IRAS's, on a living page, and is not in the 16 February 2024 release. The Rules remit "the full amount of the ABSD" for instruments before 6 July 2018, rule 3(1A)(a), without naming a percentage.

The sale timeline runs from the date the land instrument is executed, which is treated as the date of the contract or agreement where one precedes the conveyance.

The contract date, not completion or launch. For a conveyance direction the date is that of the holding company's contract where it was itself remitted, under rule 3(3)(b) and (c). IRAS's collective sale FAQ says it may, case by case, let the clock start from a later date such as a Collective Sale Order.

The developer must still commence development within 2 years and complete it within 5 years of the acquisition date; only the condition to sell every unit is set aside for the reduced clawback.

No structured value: the 2-year and 5-year timelines are baselines this measure left unchanged. Rule 6(5) keeps the Government's right to recover the remission for a breach of any other condition, so a developer that sells 95% but completes late gains nothing from this measure. The licence and document conditions in rule 3(2) also still apply.

Before 16 February 2024 the whole upfront remission, 35% or 25% of the land consideration, was clawed back with interest if the developer did not commence within 2 years or complete and sell every unit within 5 years.

No structured value: the rates and timelines are the pre-state, and the before and after pairs are stored on claims 2 to 4. Describes land bought on or after 6 July 2018.

Rule 7 applies the same reduced clawback to an additional site amalgamated with an initial site under rule 5, measured against the applicable number of units the developer must sell.

The thresholds are those of claims 1 and 5, restated for the amalgamated case. Rule 5 covers additional sites bought on or after 6 February 2023; the rule 5(12) formula for the applicable number of units is an image on SSO and is rendered by IRAS. Rule 7 is held as an extract only.

IRAS asks for a list of all sold and unsold units as at 5 years from the acquisition date, within 5 years and 1 month, and calculates the clawback from it.

No structured value: a compound administrative deadline, not a parameter this measure set. Stated on a living page that does not date the requirement, so nothing here says it began on 16 February 2024.

For land bought on or after 16 December 2021 a licensed developer pays 40% ABSD, 5% non-remittable and 35% remitted upfront; for land bought from 6 July 2018 to 15 December 2021 it paid 30%, 5% non-remittable and 25% remitted upfront.

No structured value: two pairs of components, none moved on 16 February 2024, and the sums are not parameters. Context for the clawback percentages, which are percentages of the same consideration.

The reduced clawback applies to land bought under an instrument executed on or after 6 July 2018, and not to an instrument covered by the 2018 antecedent-option remission rules.

No structured value: the only digits are dates, and 6 July 2018 is a cohort gate rather than a quantity this measure set. S 453/2018 covers a contract conditional on an option granted on or before 5 July 2018 and exercised by 26 July 2018 or the option's earlier expiry, and the conveyance that follows; such land kept the older treatment. The measure reaches back to land bought more than five years before it was announced.

The amending Rules were made on 14 February 2024, published in the Gazette on 16 February 2024 at 6 pm, and came into operation on 16 February 2024.

No structured value: the only digits are dates, and the operative one is the event's effective date. The Rules carry no transitional provision for a site whose sale timeline ended before 16 February 2024.

The Minister for Finance said the lower clawback ensures housing supply continues to be released promptly while giving developers some flexibility when they cannot sell every unit in time despite their best efforts.

Verified as a statement the Government made, not as a finding. No figure is given for how many projects missed the sale timeline or how much ABSD was clawed back before the change.