8. For acquisitions made jointly by two or more parties of different profiles, the highest applicable ABSD rate will apply.
9. Married couples with at least one Singapore citizen spouse, who jointly purchase a second residential property, can continue to apply for a refund of ABSD, subject to conditions. These conditions include selling their first residential property within 6 months after (a) the date of purchase of the second residential property if this is a completed property, or (b) the issue date of the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) or Certificate of Statutory Completion (CSC) of the second residential property, whichever is earlier, if the second property is not completed at the time of purchase.
10. The ABSD currently does not affect those buying an HDB flat or executive condominium unit from housing developers with an upfront remission, if any of the joint acquirers/purchasers is a Singapore citizen. There will be no change to this policy.
11. The revised ABSD rates will apply to all residential properties acquired on or after Apr 27, 2023. There will be a transitional provision, where the ABSD rates on or before Apr 26, 2023 will apply for cases that meet all the conditions below:
a. The Option to Purchase (OTP) was granted by sellers to potential buyers on or before Apr 26, 2023;
b. This OTP is exercised on or before May 17, 2023, or within the OTP validity period, whichever is earlier; and
c. This OTP has not been varied on or after Apr 27, 2023.
12. Correspondingly, the Additional Conveyance Duties for Buyers (ACDB), which applies to qualifying acquisitions of equity interest in property holding entities (PHEs)6 will be raised from up to 46 per cent to up to 71 per cent.
Significant Increases in Housing Supply
13. The revisions to the ABSD rates to help moderate investment demand will complement our efforts to ramp up supply, to alleviate the tight housing market for both owner-occupation and rental.
14. We have increased the supply of private housing on the Confirmed List to 4,100 units for the 1H2023 Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, from 3,500 units for 2H2022. In 2022, we had injected a total of 6,300 units under the Confirmed List. For public housing, we have launched more than 23,000 flats in 2022 and will launch up to 23,000 flats in 2023. We are also prepared to launch up to 100,000 new flats in total between 2021 to 2025. We will continue to maintain a steady pipeline, to cater to growing housing demand.
15. While COVID-19 had led to severe delays across private and public housing projects, we have made good progress to get back on track. With almost 40,000 public and private residential property completions in 2023, and near 100,000 units expected to be completed from 2023 to 2025, there will be significant housing supply coming onstream over the next few years.
16. The measures above have been calibrated to moderate housing demand while prioritising owner-occupation, and provide sufficient housing supply. The Government will continue to adjust our policies as necessary to ensure that they remain relevant, and promote a sustainable property market.