MAS keeping close watch on property market

(Oct 11): Singapore’s central bank is keeping a close eye on the property market after the city-state took a "decisive set of measures" three months ago to cool things down.

"It’s too early to tell what the implications from the last round of tightening measures are," Ravi Menon, managing director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said in an interview Tuesday. "It will take at least two to three quarters for the full implications to be understood. So we are watching that closely."

Singapore’s surging property market had been out of sync amid slowing economic growth and a rising interest rate environment, and that was not sustainable, Menon said. Housing prices on the Southeast Asian island jumped the most since 2010 before the government stepped in with tighter curbs in July. Singapore is the sixth-most expensive city in the world, according to an annual Bloomberg global city housing affordability index.

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