Singapore HBD Implements New Statute For Shift Of Flat Ownership
 

For the period of 2012 to 2015, the Singapore Housing Board permitted an average of 6,000 home ownership transfers in a year. Most claims implied for ownership transfer were decease of an owner, marriage, divorce and financial hardship.

In the past, flat owners were tolerated to transfer their flat units to their immediate family members or to their better halves but that is not the case any longer. They are at present constrained with the new statutes for shift of ownership with permitted motives which include the medical reasons, financial hardship, divorce, marriage, renouncement of citizenship and demise of an owner. The HBD freshly materialized in April its current order for transfer of flat ownership among Singapore HBD flat owners.

This practice got even more casual after January 2013 when fee for ABSD from the second property was inflicted among Singaporean flat owners. This was realized to pose a control on the heated up housing market. Accordingly, flat transfer was usually applied in the real estate industry for the owners to bypass the Additional Buyers Stamp Duty (ABSD) as divulged by property experts.