Cash-rich private property downgraders, en bloc sellers targeted in new property curbs

Just nine months after property curbs were imposed to keep private residential prices from running ahead of fundamentals, a new slew of property curbs on Friday took aim at the public housing market, which had been largely spared in the previous round.

This comes as hot money from private property downgraders flowing into the public housing market, coupled with pandemic-related disruptions in the construction sector, helped fuel a 12.7 per cent increase in Housing Board resale prices in 2021, and a further rise of 5.3 per cent in the first half of 2022.