Legal Views

Morgan Stanley has forecasted Singapore home prices to begin rising in 2018, and to double by 2030 (CNBC report in 13 April 2017). Already it is rising. For an investor wanting to buy residential property, make your decision an informed one. This Guide is a good place to start. For the savy investor, use this Guide as an update on the latest. (Dec 2017)

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As a parent, instinctively you love your child. You want to smoothen his path as much as possible. And so when he comes to you for help to buy his home, you buy it for him. You regret this later down the road. Perhaps it's because he has not turned out to be the filial child you raised him to be, or he is not as driven and hardworking as your remember him to be, or you have underestimated your need for cash in your later years. You wish you had not made the gift, You now want to sell the property. This may not resonate with you ..... But perhaps the next scenario is a stronger possibility. With the endless additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) regime and being tired of waiting for the time when it may be lifted, you decide to buy that additional property. Not wanting to pay the ABSD, the property is bought in your child's name. But you pay the price. Your child now denies that you are the owner. He says that as far as he remembers, you bought the property for him to keep.You need the Court to declare you to be the owner, but a gift once made cannot be taken back. The article explores these circumstnaces. (May 2016)

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Fainess dictates that one should not gain where one has not contributed. The flip side to this is that one should not get less than one's contributions. But all's not fair in love and war, many parents know. And thus they worry that their child's spouse may gain at their child's expense. In a Divorce Court, the last thing parents want to see is their child robbed of a gift or inheritance from them. How this can be prevented has been addressed in a previous article by the writer ("Transiting Real Estate to Your Children - The Hills and the Challenge of an In-law's Claim" ). But a dispute over property may not always end up in a Divorce Court. An in-law can puruse a claim for ownership of the property through a Civil Court, but the basis for determining ownership and share is different from that in the Divorce Court. This article sets out a Civil Court's basis for allotting shares in the property and offers some pointers. (August 2015)

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It is unfortunate that parents cannot predict if their child will live happily ever after. The character and ambitions of an in-law worry parents and feature prominently in the discussions on transiting their real estate. Real estate is after all a big-ticket item which parents pay particluar attention to. The question often asked is under what circumstances can their child's spouse lay claim to a gift of real estate. This article addresses a parent's concern and offers some pointers. (July 2015)

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As parents, you always want the best for your children. Property is one of the big-ticket items that parents may wish to transfer eventually to thier children. But both parents and their children need to be mindful of the pitfalls involved with the payment of stamp duty. This article sets out some of these pitfalls and proposes possible solutions. Hopefully, it will help you to start thinking about your transition goals and what it is you want to do for your children, property-wise. (May 2015)

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There are many reasons why a parent might buy a home for or with a child. An earlier article of mine ("A Gift of Real Estate") considered two; to provide a roof where a child cannot afford one and for the parent to add to his/her own cache of properties without having to pay the additional buyer's stamp duty. Either way, a parent runs the risk of the child claiming the property as his own one day, where this was not intended. This article is prompted by a recent High Court case in Singapore where a parent was found to have intended to make a gift of the property, where the parent claimed that this was not the case. Some insightful takeaway points given. (August 2016)

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Planing for old age is the right thing to do. There can be no certainty as to how each of us will arrive there. There are two aspects to think about; your own welfare and then how your wealth should be distributed, This Note sets down briefly the tools that are available to you. There are several links to related topics for you to follow, such as the actual planning of your estate, the use of mirror wills and mutual wills, the distributiuon of jointly-owned assets, the need for a foreigner with assets in Singapore to plan and how parents of an adult child challenged mentally and/or physically can plan.
(August 2017)

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