Singapore disallows the Interest Absorption Scheme and interest-only housing loans and reinstates the GLS Confirmed List

The Government stated that under the two schemes a buyer made no significant payment apart from an upfront down-payment of 10% to 20% until the project was completed.

Policy family: financing and credit. A stated band, stored as a range and never as one number. It is the Government's description of how the schemes worked for buyers, not a rule the package set, which is why it is classed as the source's characterisation. The release says "any significant payment", not any payment at all.

With 16 residential sites still on the Reserve List then running, MND said it would also replenish supply when drawing up the first-half 2010 Reserve List, and would announce the programme towards the end of 2009.

Policy family: supply and GLS. The 16 sites are a count on the Reserve List then running, available for developers to trigger, not new supply, and the release gives no unit yield for them. Replenishment is stated without a number.

Budget 2009 measure (a) let developers of uncompleted Government residential sale sites awarded before 22 January 2009 apply for a one-year extension of the project completion period without an extension premium, with applications due by 21 January 2010.

Policy family: developer assistance. The relief as set in January 2009, not a change made on 14 September 2009. For a site with some units sold, the extension ran only to the vacant possession date in the sale and purchase agreement. Qualifying Certificate holders as of 22 January 2009 had a parallel extension.

Budget 2009 measure (b) let successful tenderers of Government sale sites awarded before 22 January 2009, and Qualifying Certificate holders, re-assign the land or their whole shareholding once, with applications due by 21 January 2010.

Policy family: developer assistance. The relief as set in January 2009. Allowed only where the transaction was not of a speculative nature, and the purchaser could not re-assign again.

Budget 2009 measure (c) let Qualifying Certificate holders apply to extend the period for disposing of all residential units in a development to four years from the Temporary Occupation Permit, where the certificate otherwise required disposal within two years.

Policy family: developer assistance. No from-and-to pair is stored, deliberately: the move from two years to four was made in January 2009, and a pair on this event would display as a September 2009 change in the wrong direction. The relief covered developments past TOP whose disposal period had not expired at 22 January 2009, and developments issued TOP between 22 January 2009 and 21 January 2010.

Budget 2009 measure (d) let Qualifying Certificate holders seek approval to rent out unsold residential units for up to four years, where the certificate otherwise barred renting them.

Policy family: developer assistance. No before-value is stored: renting was not allowed at all, which is an absence rather than a period. The four years ran from TOP, or from the application date for a project already past TOP.

Budget 2009 measure (e) deferred property tax on land under development, of every property type, for up to two years, lapsing on the earliest of 21 January 2011, TOP, the lapse of the planning permission, or transfer of the property.

Policy family: property tax. Covered land with a valid Provisional Permission or Written Permission from URA, not only residential land. Annex 2 says this measure would be reviewed before its 2011 expiry, which sits uneasily with paragraph 8's statement that none of the measures would be extended. The outcome of that review is not held.

Under the Interest Absorption Scheme, a buyer of an uncompleted unit borrowed from the developer's partner bank, the bank required only interest before the Temporary Occupation Permit, the developer paid that interest, and the buyer began regular instalments after the permit.

Policy family: financing and credit. Describes the scheme as it was offered before the ban. The annex gives no count of projects or buyers using it.

An interest-only housing loan required interest payments only for a period, with no repayment of principal, and for an uncompleted property that period could run from the start of the loan to the Temporary Occupation Permit.

Policy family: financing and credit. Annex 1 adds that instalments may be higher once principal repayment resumes, and gives no figure for the size of that step.

The release said genuine home-buyers could continue to buy private housing under the standard payment scheme, and that removing the two schemes would encourage buyers to consider their long-term ability to afford a property.

Policy family: financing and credit. The release does not set out the standard payment scheme's instalments. The calculator's standard private schedule is linked in Prevo's research record rather than restated here.

The Government committed to reinstating the Confirmed List for the Government Land Sales Programme in the first half of 2010.

Policy family: supply and GLS. A commitment about how the next half-yearly programme would be built. It named no site, no number of sites and no unit count, and released nothing on 14 September 2009. The first-half 2010 programme was published later; the February 2010 release reports it placed 8 residential sites, including 2 executive condominium sites, able to yield about 2,900 units, on the Confirmed List.

The Government said the Budget 2009 property assistance measures would not be extended when they expired, citing strong demand for private housing and improved market conditions.

Policy family: developer assistance and property tax. Non-extension, not withdrawal: nothing ended on 14 September 2009. The release describes the measures as having given developers flexibility to adjust supply in a downturn. Claims 15 to 19 carry each one.

The release was issued jointly by the Ministry of National Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Law and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and assigns the loan measure to MAS and the land sales programme to MND.

The release assigns no measure to the Ministry of Law, and no legislative change appears in it or in either annex. The archive holds no entity for the Ministry of Law, so it is named here and in Prevo's research record rather than linked.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore disallowed the Interest Absorption Scheme with immediate effect from 14 September 2009, for all private residential projects.

Policy family: financing and credit. Applies to private residential projects; the release does not mention HDB flats or executive condominiums. The scheme was a developer and partner-bank arrangement, so the ban reached developers' sales terms as well as bank lending. The single exception is claim 2. The Deferred Payment Scheme is a different facility and is not mentioned in the release.

The only exception was uncompleted private residential projects where the units had already been offered for sale under the Interest Absorption Scheme before 14 September 2009.

Policy family: financing and credit. The test is the project's prior offers, not a buyer's contract. The release does not say whether every remaining unit in such a project stayed eligible or only the units already offered. It states the exception for the Interest Absorption Scheme only.

Interest-only housing loans were disallowed with immediate effect, and the release states no exception for them.

Policy family: financing and credit. The ban is restated in a sentence of its own after the exception, with no exception attached. Annex 1 notes that an interest-only loan could be offered under the Interest Absorption Scheme, and the release does not say how the two sentences interact inside an excepted project.

The loan measure was announced and took effect on the same day, 14 September 2009, described in the release as with effect from today.

The same-day date applies to the loan measure only. The Confirmed List attaches to a programme published later, and the Budget 2009 measures ran to their own expiry dates; see claims 10 and 20.

The first four Budget 2009 measures were to expire on 21 January 2010 and the property tax deferral on 21 January 2011.

Policy family: developer assistance and property tax. The expiry dates were set in January 2009; the September decision was only not to move them.

The release stated that developers sold 10,017 units in the first seven months of 2009, more than the 4,260 units sold in the whole of 2008.

The government's figure, quoted as the release states it and not checked here against any series. The two numbers cover seven months and twelve months, so 4,260 is not a before-value for 10,017 and is not stored as one. The release does not name the series.

Developers had triggered four sites from the Reserve List of the second-half 2009 GLS Programme, which together could yield about 1,600 units.

Policy family: supply and GLS. The Government's figure. About 1,600 units is the release's approximation and stays one; the stored value is the site count, which the release states exactly. The sites are not named.

The Government said the two schemes could encourage property speculation in a buoyant market, because they eliminated or substantially lowered regular instalments in the years before completion.

Policy family: financing and credit. The Government's reasoning, quoted as its own. The release gives no measure of speculative purchases and no count of buyers using either scheme.

The loan measure changed when a buyer's payments fell due, not how much a buyer could borrow: no loan-to-value limit, no debt-servicing rule and no stamp duty moved on 14 September 2009.

Policy family: financing and credit. Partially verified: the absence of any LTV, debt-servicing or stamp duty change is checked against the whole release; the reading that the measure acted on payment timing is Prevo's. The February 2010 round was the first in this chain to cut the financial-institution LTV, from 90% to 80%.

The three measures point the same way: the loan ban removed a financing route that deferred buyers' payments, the Confirmed List moved land release onto a Government timetable, and the non-extension let downturn relief for developers lapse.

Partially verified: each measure is primary-sourced in claims 1, 10 and 14; the reading that they form one direction is Prevo's. The release frames them together, under one title and one rationale, which supports treating them as one event rather than three.