News At A Glance

The Budget 2021 statement was delivered by Deputy Prime Minster Heng Swee Kiat on 16 February 2021.  Last year, 5 budgets were rolled out with nearly S$100 bn to help Singaporeans and businesses cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, ending the financial year with a record Budget deficit of S$64.9 bn. Dampened by the pandemic, Singapore saw its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 5.4%. Budget 2021, also dubbed the Emerging Stronger Together Budget is set to help Singapore get on the path of recovery.  The Emerging Stronger Together Budget will see $11 bn set aside for...

Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) flash estimates reveal an increase of 2.1% from Q3 to Q4 2020 in the overall private property price index, continuing the upward trend from an increase of 0.8% in Q3 2020. Prices of non-landed properties grew by 3.2% Q-o-Q in Q4, the steepest quarterly increase since Q2 2018, when prices increased 3.4%. Overall prices increased 2.2% despite the severe economic downturn, as compared to 2.7% in 2019, signaling a strong underlying demand in Singapore. In Q4, prices of non-landed homes in the city fringe or rest of the central region (RCR) saw the greatest...

The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR Project) has officially been thrown in the water, 4 years after the agreement was signed in 2016.  Multiple changes had been proposed by the Malaysian government following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the two governments were unable to come to an agreement even after several discussions. Prior to the cancellation, the project was twice delayed due to domestic politics in Malaysia. Originally slated to be completed in 2026, plans were eventually pushed to Dec 2031. Bilateral relations remain intact, but tremendous benefits have bee...

In a continuation of the nation’s worst recession, economists expect Singapore’s economic contraction to lead into 2021 until the second half of the year, even in view of the slight pickup in the economy in Q4 of 2020 at 3.8%, an improvement to the 5.8% drop in Q3 and exceeding expectations by approximately a percentage point. As a whole, economic contraction year-on-year, at 5.8%, was lower than the forecasted 6-6.5%. Though vaccinations have begun both locally and internationally, as some time is needed for its effectiveness to be evinced, the re-opening of borders is unlikely to be imminent...

Singapore’s submission – Hawker Culture In Singapore: Community Dining And Culinary Practices In A Multicultural Urban Context – was accepted and added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This made it Singapore’s second entry to any UNESCO list, five years after the Singapore Botanic Gardens was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. UNESCO recognises intangible cultural heritage as “living heritage” where traditions and practices ar...

More social and economic activities will resume as Singapore moves into the third phase of its re-opening from 28 Dec 2020. This was announced on a televised address to the nation by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday, 14 December to provide updates to the COVID-19 situation. The permitted group size for social gatherings will be increased from five to eight persons. Attractions can start applying to increase their operating capacity from 50% to 65%. Capacity limits will also be increased from 10m to 8m per person in malls and large standalone stores. The multi-ministerial task...

Land supply for private residential use for H1 2020 has risen by an estimated 17% from H2 2020, in which we saw a 5-year low of only 1,370 units supplied. A total of 1,605 units have been added to the private home supply from 4 sites newly released on the confirmed list, including one Executive Condominium (EC) site that will yield around 599 units. The 2.37ha EC site at Tampines Street 62 is set to be released for sale in April 2021 together with a 1.72ha site for private development at Lentor Central – both sites have been brought over from the r...

As the possibility of the dissemination of vaccines globally becomes increasingly tangible, economists have predicted a growth of 5.5% in Singapore’s economy come 2021, signalling the end of the worst recession since independence in 1965. The economy has also been forecasted to contract by 6.0-6.5% in 2020, a narrowed forecast as compared to the contraction of 5-7% previously estimated. The positive forecasts followed recent developments which have reflected successful containment of the pandemic and the growing likelihood of vaccines becoming available across the glob...

The property market in 2020 saw a fall in property sales, but has remained above the global financial crisis levels, with approximately $12.2 billion sales made by investors in the first three quarters of 2020, more than the $9.9 billion made in the full year of 2009. This reflects strong investor confidence in the nation’s governance and growth prospects as well as the attractiveness of Singapore’s properties, and this is evinced by the gain in investment sales activity in the previous quarter. Private residential sales have also remained relatively buoyant throughout...

The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced additional temporary relief measures for property developers affected by disruptions to construction timelines resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The measures, effective immediately includes: (i) Extension of the Project Completion Period (PCP) by a further 6 months for residential, commercial and industrial development projects; (ii) Extension of time by a further 6 months for the commencement and completion of the residential development projects in relation to the remission of the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) for hous...