Can Singapore raise the stamp duty on foreigners’ real estate to 60% to buy a house？

2024年1月31日 | admin | teyrty

　　With the global major housing market cooling down, Singapore’s real estate prices have risen for 12 consecutive quarters. In order to solve this problem, at the end of April, the Singapore government raised the additional buyer stamp duty (ABSD) for foreigners to purchase residential properties by 30 percentage points to 60%, with immediate effect from April 27th.

　　This has caught many real estate agents and property buyers off guard. "Take a private house worth 2 million Singapore dollars as an example, which means that the extra buyer stamp duty that foreign buyers have to pay will soar from 600,000 Singapore dollars to 1.2 million Singapore dollars (about 6.21 million yuan)." Deng Minjie, executive director of AsianPrime Properties, told the First Financial Reporter.

　　The New Deal was introduced because with the high housing prices, Singaporeans are increasingly worried about being squeezed out of the housing market, and high housing prices may also make Singapore less attractive as an international financial center.

　　According to the latest data from the Urban Renewal Authority of Singapore, the price of private housing in Singapore rose by 3.3% in the first quarter, compared with only 0.4% in the previous quarter. In 2021 and 2022, local house prices increased by 10.6% and 8.6% respectively.

Singapore (Source: Xinhua News Agency)

　　The third round of cooling in two years

　　In other major international metropolises, the proportion of ABSD is much lower. For example, the tax rate for foreigners to buy a house in Vancouver is 29%, while the tax rates in London, Melbourne and Sydney are around 14%. New york’s tax rate is only 4.3%.

　　In a joint statement, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Development and monetary authority of singapore explained the new policy: "The demand of local people to buy their own houses has been particularly strong, and local and foreign investors have shown renewed interest in our residential real estate market.If not controlled, the price may exceed the economic fundamentals. At the same time, there is a risk that the ratio of price to income will continue to rise."

　　Deng Minjie told CBN that under the risk of high loan interest rate environment and global economic challenges, stabilizing real estate prices is the top priority of the Singapore government. "This round of cooling measures is to slow down the purchase demand, especially the purchase demand of investors and foreigners."

　　In fact, this is the third cooling measure for real estate since the COVID-19 epidemic. In December 2021 and September 2022, the government took similar early preventive measures, which had a "mitigation effect".

　　For example, the stamp duty of foreign buyers in Singapore increased from 20% to 30% in December 2021, which led to a decrease of 16.5% in the number of apartments purchased by foreigners in 2022. But in fact, the local real estate prices are still not loose.

　　According to a research report of Orange Tee&Tie, a Singapore brokerage company in 2022, Singapore is still the primary investment destination for foreign investors after several rounds of cooling measures.

　　"Despite the interest rate hike and the cooling measures implemented in December 2021, foreign buyers bought more luxury apartments with a price of S $5 million (about RMB 25.87 million) and above in 2022," the report said. "The purchases of luxury apartments by foreigners and those who have obtained permanent residency in Singapore have almost returned to the level of 2019."

　　According to the buyer’s inquiry data provided by Juwai Iqi Group, a global real estate technology company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore is the favorite overseas purchase destination for China buyers. Since 2021, Singapore has entered the top 10 overseas inquiries of China buyers, ranking ninth that year. Although the Singapore government raised the stamp duty on foreign buyers at the end of 2021, Singapore has been ranked tenth in the inquiry list for the next two years.

　　What will be different this time?

　　Foreign buyers account for only a small proportion of Singapore’s real estate sales. According to the data of the Urban Renewal Authority of Singapore, foreign buyers accounted for 4.7% of Singapore’s house purchases last year, rising to 7% in the first quarter of this year.

　　Nicholas Mak, chief research officer of MOGUL.sg, a real estate information platform, therefore believes that if only 10% of purchases are affected, then these measures have limitations. "How can we cool the market if it has little impact on the other 90%? It’s like you have a burning oil plant, and these people don’t use the right tools to put out the fire. "

　　At the same time, people who can afford to buy real estate in Singapore may not care about paying more taxes.

　　Kashif Ansari, co-founder and CEO of IQI, told the First Financial Reporter that the high housing prices in Singapore have eliminated a number of foreign buyers. High-net-worth people who plan to buy Singapore real estate now may not change their decision to buy a house because of a 30% tax increase.

　　“Of course, those who specialize in real estate speculation will be discouraged. On the other hand, foreign buyers aiming at global allocation may turn their eyes to luxury houses in Malaysia or Dubai."He said.

　　Deng Minjie said that according to past experience, foreign buyers often balk after receiving the news, especially this time the increase has doubled.

　　However, after the introduction of the New Deal, one of her clients, the foreign buyer who originally planned to look at the house, did not change her mind. "We have communicated with them in time about the tax increase, and they are still willing to continue the house purchase plan. Their feedback is that Singapore will be the place where they want to invest in immigrants. " She also revealed that,Her buyers reported that the unit price of houses in Singapore was reasonable, but the tax was very high.

　　Sun Yanqing, research director of Orange Easy Industry, told the First Financial Reporter: "Cooling measures may curb demand in the next few months. This may provide time for more housing completion and housing supply. When there is a better market balance, the price may stabilize. When demand shrinks, price increases may also slow down. This will help first-time home buyers and HDB upgraders to buy their first home. "

　　"We have slightly lowered the price forecast for the whole year of 2023 from 5%-8% to 4%-7%." Sun Yanqing said.

　　Deng Minjie predicted that as first-time buyers of Singapore citizens and permanent residents will not be affected under the New Deal, these groups will become the main demand drivers in the coming months. According to the data in 2022, this group accounts for about 90% of residential real estate transactions.

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How to judge whether tea is good？

2024年1月9日 | admin | tdryrft
"Source of this article: People’s Daily Press"
A friend often asks me, "How to judge whether tea is good?" I seriously replied: "Tea looks clean, and it tastes sweet and delicious, which is good tea." They didn’t think so. They thought I was either perfunctory or empty. No way, I have to talk about how to judge whether tea is good.
Appearance. The shapes of tea are various, and the most common ones are strip-shaped, curly, long and round. No matter what the shape of tea leaves is, it is judged by the rope, tenderness, thickness, weight and uniformity of tea leaves. Usually, the rope is fine and tight, the gap is small, and the volume is small, followed by the bulky and loose one. Generally speaking, no matter what shape of tea leaves are, as long as they are compact and heavy, without yellow flakes and thick branches, they will not be bad.
Gloss. It is difficult to subjectively say which color of tea is absolutely good for tea from different producing areas and different technologies, but one thing can be objectively judged, that is, the gloss of tea. No matter what color tea is, as long as it looks bright, oily and textured, it is good tea.
Dry humidity. The water content standard of all kinds of tea is kept at 5%-7%. More than 8% of tea is easy to age, and more than 12% of tea is easy to mildew. At present, many tea farmers deliberately control the water content at more than 10% when making crude tea, so that the weight of tea will increase. This kind of raw tea will feel very good when it is first tried out of the oven, but the taste will change completely after a while, so the dryness and humidity of tea is very important. I introduce a method to measure the moisture content of tea by hand: hold a large handful of tea in your hand for three to four times repeatedly, and there is a tingling sensation in your hand. When you hear the sound of broken branches, the moisture content of tea will generally not exceed 8%; The tea with water content above 10% has no tingling sensation in the palm of your hand when you hold it, and the tea is a little soft and smells green. Of course, there is also a remedy to buy tea with high water content, that is, put the tea in an air-conditioned room with air conditioning, which can not only remove some water from the tea, but also prevent it from rapid oxidation.
Soup color. The color of soup refers to the color of tea soup after brewing, which can be divided into three types: normal color, bad color change and old color change. Normal color refers to the tea made under normal harvesting conditions, and the tea soup shows the normal color after brewing. For example, green tea or green tea is green or light yellow (also called goose yellow) after brewing; Black tea is red soup color or golden soup color, red and bright. Bad discoloration means that it is difficult for tea soup to present its proper color because of improper collection, transportation or initial preparation of fresh tea. For example, the soup color of deteriorated green tea is grayish brown or reddish in yellow. Aging discoloration means that it is difficult for tea soup to present its proper color due to aging in the production process. For example, if the tea leaves are not kneaded in time after fixation, and are not spread to cool or dry in time after kneading, the soup color of new tea will be old. Properly made new tea, the soup is bright and crystal clear; When the tea is aged, the soup color is yellow, brown and gray, and the turbidity is everywhere.
The above are some opinions on "observing the face and observing the color". Let’s talk about the soul of tea endoplasm.
Smell the fragrance. Different land, climate, varieties and production techniques make the aroma of all kinds of tea have their own characteristics and styles. As a whole, it can be summarized into five evaluation factors: purity, richness, freshness, flatness and coarseness.
Pure: the fragrance is pure, and there is no miscellaneous taste and greasy feeling.
Strong: The aroma is strong and long.
Fresh and refreshing: the smell is fresh, which makes people feel refreshed, such as being in a mountain or a place with a good ecological environment, and feeling in the air with high negative ions.
Ping: The aroma is plain, and there is no strange smell.
Coarse: fragrant, but the fragrance is mixed, choking the nose and spicy.
The durability of aroma is also a factor to judge the quality of tea. I condensed the criteria for judging good tea into four simple words-quiet and elegant, and the durability of tea is reflected in the word "quiet". "Quiet" means that the aroma of tea is long and lasting.
I sum up the smell of incense as follows: the pure is pure, the fragrance is elegant but not greasy, and the light and tasteful is quiet. With this feature, good tea is undoubtedly also.
Let’s talk about the taste of tea. Taste means the feeling after drinking. Alcohol is just right. Tea tastes fresh, mellow, fragrant and sweet. The taste of inferior tea is bitter, coarse and pungent, and some people interpret this performance as strong and sweet, especially the tea drinkers of the older generation in Chaoshan often describe this bad taste as "fleshy", "full mouth" and "strong enough".
Sometimes the tea soup tastes bad, which may be due to the thick water. Rough water is not a feeling, but a fact. Sometimes, we feel that after drinking tea soup, there are attachments on the tongue surface or the bottom of the tongue, which makes the tongue surface feel rough. This is because there are more particles in the tea soup. There are two sources of particulate matter: first, the tea processing process is unsanitary, dust and sand are attached, or wood ash particles are caused by improper baking with charcoal fire, which belongs to foreign coarse particles; Second, the release of particles is related to the quality of tea. For example, the tea growing at low altitude has high temperature, fast growth speed, thick leaves and loose fibers. After making and baking at high temperature, once soaked, the crumbs and particles on the edge of tea will dissolve in water, making the tea soup more particles and the tea soup thicker. This is an endogenous particle, which will have a dull and astringent taste after drinking.
In front of me, I talked about several basic elements of tea evaluation, from the shape, appearance and gloss of tea to the color, smell and taste of soup, and finally talked about the evaluation of leaf bottom.
Many people drink tea, whether they understand or not, they will pick up the cover bowl and smell it, and then poke the tea with the cover. The technical term of this link is "viewing the bottom of the leaf". Viewing the bottom of leaves is also a method to judge the grade of tea. Generally speaking, the color is the first thing to look at at the bottom of the leaves. After fully brewing, the leaves are spread out and the color is uniform, and one side is not red and the other side is green. The texture of the leaves is oily, there is no obvious explosion point or burning point, and the integrity of the leaves is high. It is good tea to have such a leaf bottom. Of course, tea culture is profound, and not all teas are the same. Some teas with obvious characteristics, such as Jin Junmei in Tongmuguan, are still tall and straight after soaking in water for more than 20 years, and each bud head is bright and thick, like a red tassel gun head; If it is Jin Junmei made of green tea buds from Guanwai or Jiangxi, after several times of brewing, all the buds will stick together and never stand up again.
Of course, these people need to be judged by people who have rich experience or major in tea research, and ordinary tea drinkers don’t need to spend so much energy to study these problems.
(This article is excerpted from People’s Daily Publishing House "Thinking about Tea")
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