Remember the song “ Stop in the name of love….before you break my heart “, and precisely this is what MDA is doing for the love of the property market and the Singapore economy. Because if the confirmed land sites were to continue to go on sale, may just kill any “young shoots” in the real estate market, and that will break many people’s hearts.

It is all in the interest of the general economy, which has yet to show fundamental signs of recovery. Land sales today will affect capacity in the coming 5 to 8 years. Land sales has been suspended since October 2008, a further 6 months suspension of land sales of confirmed sites is from July to December. This will allow the market to stabalise given its recent exuberance, many economic and fundamental factors have not been factored in.

Ministry of National Development (MND)  was quoted as saying that they will continue to monitor the situation, and did not confirm if in any circumstance will sales resume at the end of 2009 or if they will continue to extend the suspension further. In fact, MND had added 2 sites to its reserve list. Reserve list sites are launched for tender only if there is a successful application by a developer, unlike parcels on the confirmed list, which are released for sale according to a pre-stated schedule.

MND also said yesterday that outside the GLS Programme, government agencies will not release any additional supply of private homes and hotel rooms in H2 2009. And the commercial space supply from these agencies will also be lower, at about 28,000 sq m of GFA compared with planned supply of 40,000 sq m in H1.

I guess a sigh of relief can be heard echoing throughout the island.