A recent report made by Bank of America Merril Lynch says that home prices in Singapore can fall 20 percent by 2016 depending on how the government moves on its economic restructuring policies and property cooling measures, The Strait Times reports.
“We believe the fate of the market will depend very much on the direction of policy, particularly on restructuring, immigration and foreign workers, as well as the timing of the relaxation of strict property measures,” economist Chua Hak Bin wrote in the report that was released on Tuesday.
This is because an “overly tight” population policy would exacerbate Singapore’s ageing demographics and limit the inflow of a younger foreign workforce, which in turn, would affect property prices, he said.
Meanwhile, delays in relaxing the property cooling measures would “imply a greater negative impact from rising mortgage rates and persistence of housing distortions”.
Read the full story at Strait Times
