China Cracks Down on Fake Divorces to Control Higher Property Purchase

The resurgence in the property prices in Shenzhen and Shanghai has forced authorities to rethink property market activities. The Chinese government has run a detailed analysis on market scenarios and they have finally come to a conclusion.
The officials at Shanghai recently revealed new policies to cool down the real estate market and it also includes a measure to capture the loopholes in fake divorce filing which makes people eligible to buy new properties. Furthermore, the government has also decided to levy a tax on all the houses that are purchased within the past five years. It is expected to be up from the tax barrier applied two years ago.


With this new policy on the ground, the professionals in big cities of Shanghai such as Hangzhou and Shenzhen are expected to crack down all the housing speculations due to fake divorces right from the year 2018.


It is important to mention that most of the Chinese cities follow certain limit on home buying trends on the basis of how many properties a single family can own. But divorce has become a way to bypass this restriction. As per existing guidelines, one family in Shanghai can own two homes at maximum. As per the new rules, the number of homes that are owned by divorced couples within the last three years will be counted and this count will be compared with the number of homes they used to own when they were married.
Other than this, the government authorities at southern boomtown have also decided to tighten the rules for a home purchase by this month. With the new rules, the cost of an apartment has to be equal the 43.5 times higher than the annual salary of the resident. Note that the housing affordability is generally better in Shenzhen as compared to Hong Kong, which is believed to be worse in respect to other 80 megacities.

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New Private Home Sales Boost by 57% Achieving Highest Level in Past 8 Years

The new private home sales climbed their peak level in December month recently and it was the highest recorded boost since the past eight years. This situation is believed to be a response to post-pandemic recovery where buyers jumped into the market while expecting a further rise in property prices.

 

If we look at the stats from the previous month, the sales by developers reached the count of 1,217 units with a rise of 57% as the count was restricted to 774 in the month of November. Note that this rise is almost 126% higher as compared to the market condition from a year ago.

 

These sales were mostly driven by several new launches in the real estate market. Clavon in Clementi reported a sale of 473 units which turned out to meet the median price of $1,537 per square foot. On the other side, Brookvale-based Ki Residences shifted almost 172 units and the median price for these sales was $1766 per square foot. As per the recent stats, both these projects represent 53% in terms of new home sales from the previous month. Note that the new home sales from the December 2012 records were found to be highest till now with the reported count of 1410 units.

 

A surprising turnaround in the real estate market was observed in the second half of the year 2020. The demand for the new private homes during these months led to the sale of a total of 10,024 units in the entire year. Note that this count was 1% higher than the records of the previous year (2019) when only 9912 transactions were reported.

 

Reports reveal that the new home sales have not crossed the estimated count of 10,000 units right since July 2018 when the fresh cooling measures were imposed in the real estate market. But this has happened somehow in a year loaded with all uncertainties. As the Singaporeans are advised to avoid travel plans as long as this global pandemic situation doesn’t fall under control, most of the local residents decided to visit show flats during the ongoing holiday season.

 

Note that the figures displayed above exclude the larger executive condominium units that fall into the category of public-private housing hybrid. If we include these units, the new hole sale can be reported to be 1265 units that come out to be 54% higher than the previous month and 129.6 percent more as compared to the previous year.

 

On the other side, the number of new housing units launched in the month of December surged at 265% as compared to the previous year; however, it was less than November month by 1.9%. As per the Huttons Asia report, a total of 23 private residential projects was introduced into the market in the year 2020 out of which ten projects came into the market before circuit breaker and 13 were launched after that. Some of the most popular and top-selling projects from recent listings include Piermont Grand, Jadescape, Treasure at Tampines, and Parc Clematis.

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/new-private-home-sales-surprise-with-surge-to-highest-for-december-in-8-years-ura

Condo Resale Prices Increased Surprisingly for 5th Straight Month

Covid-19 fallout has caused considerable turbulence in the business and real estate sector. However, even after this major fallout, the private property resale market in Singapore is still rising higher. After the implementation of cooling measures in the year 2018, these prices climbed consistently for the fifth month as reported in December.

 

For the entire 2020, the real estate experts have observed a considerable rise of 1.4% in the prices of condominium resale values. However, it is slightly lower as compared to the 1.8% rise reported in the year 2019. Note that the overall resale price for the non-landed properties in Singapore also rose by 0.3% as compared to the previous month.

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Ways the Health Crisis Made the Real Estate Market Adapt

When a crisis occurs, regardless of its type, it is hard to foresee what will happen and how industries will adapt. Concerning the real estate market, it seems that things are looking better than expected. Due to technology, homebuyers can enjoy virtual tours of properties, minimizing the need to go out and make room in their daily schedule. Also, it is expected for things to evolve even further, as new means may soon be adopted so that homebuyers and investors meet their needs and requirements in safer and more convenient ways.


At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore, the majority wondered what will this mean for the real estate market. Will it stop completely or slide on a downward spiral? The most pessimistic believed that this year prices will drop significantly, touching unprecedented records. However, the Singapore property market proved to be quite resilient, surprising everyone with its evolution. Of course, this did not happen by chance, as it was the sum of several efforts meant to keep the market on the floating line, if not even in between normal limits.

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Perennial Real Estate Purchased MediaCorp’s Former Caldecott Site for $280.9 Million

The widely known hilltop site at Andrew Road that formerly housed Caldecott Broadcast Centre for years has been now sold to the entity which is jointly owned and managed by Perennial Real Estate Holdings and Mr. Kuok Khoon Hong, who is the chairman of the company. The deal was closed at about $280.9 mil.


This site was being marketed by Showsuit Consultancy and CBRE real estate consultants and they closed the tender recently on 9th December by announcing it as sold.

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