Tenants sceptical that landlords will pass on rebates in Resilience Budget

Published Thu, Mar 26, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Singapore

MAJOR landlords say they intend to pass on the expanded property tax rebates announced in Thursday's Budget, but tenants remain sceptical, especially those still locked in negotiations over the earlier rebates.

As part of a landmark budget to mitigate the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, the government expanded the earlier-announced property tax rebates such that commercial properties that qualified for Budget 2020's rebates of 15 to 30 per cent will now pay zero property tax for 2020.

Non-residential properties like offices and industrial properties will get a new property tax rebate of 30 per cent. Rental waivers for tenants of government properties will be increased.

The commercial property tax savings are estimated to amount to 1.2 month's worth of rent, a marked boost from the earlier round where savings would have corresponded to five to six…