Government measures in key jurisdictions 3rd edition final - Flipbook - Page 106
Singapore
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On 13 May 2020, the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Transfer of Benefit of Property Tax Remission)
Regulations came into operation. It provides further details on how owners are to pass on the
rebate, including:
– the formulae for determining the prescribed amount of benefit that must be passed on to the
tenant,
– the prescribed manner and time for passing on the benefit, and
– the information to be provided to the tenant.
: On 6 May 2020,
the SG government announced temporary relief measures for property developers and individuals
affected by disruptions to construction timelines and sales of housing units resulting from the
Covid-19 pandemic:
•
– Extension of the Project Completion Period (“
”) by 6 months for residential, commercial
and industrial development projects.
– Extension of time by 6 months for the commencement and completion of residential
development, and sale of housing units in residential development projects in relation to the
remission of the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (“
”) for housing developers.
– Extension of time by 6 months for the sale of the first residential property in relation to the
remission of ABSD for the second residential property purchased by a Singaporean married couple.
: The SG government announced on 26 May 2020, as part of the Fortitude
Budget, rental relief for SMEs operating in qualifying non-residential properties. SMEs are defined
as enterprises with not more than $100 million in annual turnover in the Financial Year ending
2018, based on Year of Assessment 2019 corporate or individual income tax returns. The annual
turnover is based on entity level, as opposed to group level. Taken together with the Property Tax
Rebate from the Resilience and Unity Budgets, the Government will be providing rental assistance
for eligible tenants who are SMEs or qualifying non-profit organisations as follows:
– 2 months of rental assistance for qualifying commercial properties
– 1 month of rental assistance for other non-residential properties (e.g. industrial and office
properties)
For private non-residential properties, the rental assistance will be given in a form of a cash grant
to qualifying property owners who have eligible SME tenants/ sub-tenants/ licensees/ sublicensees (“eligible tenants”) or who are SME owners operating in the non-residential property.
Eligible tenants must have qualifying leases or licenses (i) entered into before 25 March 2020 or
(ii) entered into before 25 March 2020 but expired and renewed automatically, or in exercise of
a right of renewal in the contract.
: On 5 June 2020, the SG government passed the Covid-19
(Temporary Measures)(Amendment) Bill 2020 which provides for measures which seek to mitigate
the economic impact caused on tenants and landlords, purchasers and developers by the Covid-19:
– Rental relief to SME tenants: Apart from rental relief by the SG government, landlords are now
required to grant additional rental relief to SME tenants of non-residential properties (that meet
four broad conditions) who have suffered significantly (i.e. suffered a substantial drop in average
monthly revenue due to Covid-19 whereby the average monthly revenue from April to May 2020
on an outlet level is reduced by 35 per cent or more as compared to the same period in 2019).
– Statutory Repayment Scheme: SME tenants that qualify for the aforementioned landlord relief
can also repay rental arrears accumulated from 1 February 2020 to 19 October 2020 under a
prescribed statutory repayment schedule by serving a written notice on their landlords. Once this
notice has been served, the tenants must service the first instalment no later than 1 November
2020. Under the repayment schedule, tenants will pay a specified portion of their arrears in equal
instalments over an extended period of time (up to a maximum of nine months or the remaining
term of tenancy, whichever is shorter), with interest on these arrears capped at 3 per cent
per annum.
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Government measures in key jurisdictions