No reason for govt to remove curbs, says Capitaland boss

Singapore’s residential property curbs are set to stay in place for at least another year amid signs the city’s housing market is stabilising, the chief executive officer of South-east Asia’s biggest developer said.

“We see volume picking up and the price declines have slowed,” Mr Lim Ming Yan, the president and CEO of CapitaLand, said in a Bloomberg interview.

“We see this trend continuing for 2017. There is no compelling reason for the government at this point to make major changes”, to property curbs, he said.

Mr Lim was speaking after the Singapore-based developer said net income climbed 74 per cent to S$430.5 million ($303 million) in the three months ended Dec 31. Revenue rose 7 per cent to S$1.9 billion. For the year, net profit rose 12 per cent to S$1.2 billion.

CapitaLand shares rose 0.9 per cent at yesterday’s close, extending this year’s gain to 16 per cent. CapitaLand’s Singapore home sales more than doubled to 571 units during the quarter, and sales in China rose 14 per cent. Singapore and China accounted for 84 percent of annual group earnings before interest and tax, up from 79 percent the previous year.

Mr Lim said the global environment is uncertain and volatile, with the biggest risk being how the China-United States relationship develops. US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese goods and has labelled the nation a currency manipulator. He further antagonised China by calling into question the ‘‘One China’’ policy after a telephone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, before a soothing phone conversation with China’s President Xi Jinping last week.

“These are the two largest economies in the world, so if they are on good terms many other businesses can grow, but if they are not on good terms then we have to be mindful that there could be situations we will have to manage,” he said. BLOOMBERG