mr funny
15-02-11, 15:51
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,425706-1297540740,00.html?
Published February 12, 2011
Top end home loans not impacted: DBS
Cooling measures take toll on demand for cheaper units
By CONRAD TAN
THE recent government measures to cool the property market have hurt demand for new home loans at the lower end of the market, but not at the top end, DBS Group chief executive Piyush Gupta said yesterday. It's still 'too early' to tell how much impact the latest slew of government measures to cool the property market - announced on Jan 13 - has had on demand for home loans, Mr Gupta told reporters at a briefing on the bank's 2010 results.
'There's been a slowdown, but the slowdown also happened because of the Lunar New Year; that happens every year. So it's difficult for us to understand so far how much is the impact of the January guidelines and how much is the impact of the seasonality of the Lunar New Year.'
But since last August, when the first in the latest series of tighter financing and ownership rules was announced, the number of new home-loan applications has dropped at DBS and other banks.
'Our own general sense is that volumes will come off. We think these measures will have some impact,' said Mr Gupta.
But the cooling measures so far have had a greater impact on loan applications for cheaper properties, he said. 'Our observation after the August guidelines is that the top end of the market came off for a month or two and then bounced back. The lower end of the market - the smaller-value properties - came off and stayed off.'
One might see that with the latest measures announced in January, too, he added. 'There's still a lot of liquidity and demand at the top end.'
That was both a plus and a minus for DBS, he said. 'Our presence in the lower end of the market is much stronger than in the top end. So when you have a slowdown at the lower end, it hurts DBS.
'But some of the changes in the rules make it a lot more possible for us to approach the top end of the market' without taking on too much risk, because home buyers must now pay a higher proportion of a property's price in cash, he said.
As the bank expands its wealth-management business serving rich customers, 'we think we can start winning more share at the top end of the market that we've not done in the past', he said.
DBS had $38.7 billion worth of home loans on its books as at Dec 31, of which $28 billion were Singapore mortgages and $8 billion were Hong Kong mortgages.
Published February 12, 2011
Top end home loans not impacted: DBS
Cooling measures take toll on demand for cheaper units
By CONRAD TAN
THE recent government measures to cool the property market have hurt demand for new home loans at the lower end of the market, but not at the top end, DBS Group chief executive Piyush Gupta said yesterday. It's still 'too early' to tell how much impact the latest slew of government measures to cool the property market - announced on Jan 13 - has had on demand for home loans, Mr Gupta told reporters at a briefing on the bank's 2010 results.
'There's been a slowdown, but the slowdown also happened because of the Lunar New Year; that happens every year. So it's difficult for us to understand so far how much is the impact of the January guidelines and how much is the impact of the seasonality of the Lunar New Year.'
But since last August, when the first in the latest series of tighter financing and ownership rules was announced, the number of new home-loan applications has dropped at DBS and other banks.
'Our own general sense is that volumes will come off. We think these measures will have some impact,' said Mr Gupta.
But the cooling measures so far have had a greater impact on loan applications for cheaper properties, he said. 'Our observation after the August guidelines is that the top end of the market came off for a month or two and then bounced back. The lower end of the market - the smaller-value properties - came off and stayed off.'
One might see that with the latest measures announced in January, too, he added. 'There's still a lot of liquidity and demand at the top end.'
That was both a plus and a minus for DBS, he said. 'Our presence in the lower end of the market is much stronger than in the top end. So when you have a slowdown at the lower end, it hurts DBS.
'But some of the changes in the rules make it a lot more possible for us to approach the top end of the market' without taking on too much risk, because home buyers must now pay a higher proportion of a property's price in cash, he said.
As the bank expands its wealth-management business serving rich customers, 'we think we can start winning more share at the top end of the market that we've not done in the past', he said.
DBS had $38.7 billion worth of home loans on its books as at Dec 31, of which $28 billion were Singapore mortgages and $8 billion were Hong Kong mortgages.