SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Dorothy Marie Ng, Monica Yip, Tay Peng Cheng and Tan Shao Tong, WongPartnership LLP
1. General 1.1 Main Sources of Law
In January 2023, the Singapore Land Authority announced the appointment of a vendor for the development of the Digital Conveyancing Portal (DCP), which is scheduled to be completed by 2026. The purpose of the DCP is to streamline the existing conveyancing process for public and private housing as well as commercial and industrial properties by providing a consolidated online platform, making such processes paper - less and facilitating e-payments and digital document submissions. The DCP is expected to be implemented over three phases, with beta testing taking place prior to live transactions on the DCP targeted to take place in 2025. Real estate activity remained steady in Singa - pore in 2024, though demand from the technol - ogy sector dampened towards the end of 2024 as firms sought to lower operating costs. The first US Federal Reserve interest rate cut in four years in September 2024 led to increased mar - ket activity as businesses sought to capitalise on a lower interest rate environment. Despite uncer - tainties in the global economy, the real estate market has remained resilient. While there was a slowdown in the growth of pri - vate residential home prices in 2024 compared to the preceding two years, easing of US interest rates towards the end of 2024 saw the sales of newly completed residential units in October and November exceed the number of such units sold in the first nine months of 2024. The commercial real estate market saw mixed results. While relocations and expansions have slowed due to the popularity of work-from-home arrangements and firms consider their operat - ing costs, landlords are asking for higher per- square-foot rentals and charging premiums for shorter leases. The market for industrial proper - ties has remained healthy, with a number of large
The Singapore legal system is based on the English common law system. Singapore land law falls under two systems: • the Registration of Deeds Act 1988, where lands are typically known as “unregistered land” ; and • the Land Titles Act 1993 or the Land Titles (Strata) Act 1967, where lands are registered and known as “registered land” . The system of land registration for registered land is adopted from the Torrens system of land registration. There is legislation governing areas specific to real estate, such as: • permitted use (the Planning Act 1998); • development and construction (the Building Control Act 1989); • management of strata units in flats and build - ings (the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act 2004); and • taxes relating to transactions involving real estate (the Stamp Duties Act 1929). 1.2 Main Market Trends and Deals Apart from instruments and deeds registered or to be registered under the Land Titles Act 1993, the Land Titles (Strata) Act 1967 and the Reg - istration of Deeds Act 1988, there is currently no explicit legislation in Singapore governing the use of digital instruments or “tokens” to transact real estate generally. Some “proptech” compa - nies have used or offered blockchain platforms that enable investors to tap into funding for real estate, mainly for the purpose of raising funds or projects outside of Singapore.
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