New curbs likely to hit industrial, retail sales hardest
As a measure of speculative deals in the sector, data from property broker Midland IC&I show that 1,276 confirmor sales were transacted in the industrial property market last year. Confirmor sales are deals in which a property is resold before the original transaction is completed.
Industrial and retail properties are expected to be the hardest-hit among non-residential properties by the government's new measures to curb property speculation.
As a measure of speculative deals in the sector, data from property broker Midland IC&I show that 1,276 confirmor sales were transacted in the industrial property market last year. Confirmor sales are deals in which a property is resold before the original transaction is completed.
That figure, the highest since record-keeping began in 1997, exceeded the confirmor sales of retail and office properties last year.
The retail market saw the second-highest number of confirmor sales, with such deals surging 102.5 per cent to 644 last year.
Property agents now expect the number of these deals - done mainly by speculators hoping to make a quick capital gain before taking transfer of a property - to drop sharply due to the measures announced last Friday.
The measures, which took effect last Saturday, include stamp duties doubling to as much as 8.5 per cent for non-residential properties, and buyers are now required to pay the stamp duty upon the conclusion of the sales agreement. Buyers previously had to pay the stamp duty only after completion of the deal.
