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What will come up in the Budget? We’ll find out soon, on Thursday Feb 12. The government’s operating revenue for the year looks set to surpass estimates, and a larger-than-expected surplus is anticipated, writes Elysia Tan.
A full-year surplus will boost the Republic’s fiscal firepower for serving future needs, and most believe Budget 2026 support measures will be targeted. Areas that economists see need addressing include continued cost-of-living support and job creation, as well as retooling the economy to be AI-ready.
Tax takings rang in higher last year, particularly for corporate income tax and personal income tax. Even so, a fiscally responsible government may have to raise tax rates in coming years to finance much-needed spending on healthcare, for instance, writes Leslie Yee. The need to fund rising government expenditure comes amid fears that the working population who traditionally contribute much to tax coffers could shrink with a rapid ageing population.
If higher taxation is on the horizon, might property tax have to do much of the heavy lifting?
Leslie lays out why he thinks raising property taxes may be far more palatable to companies and individuals, over higher income tax or goods and services tax. This is especially as residential property tax rates are progressive and owner-occupiers enjoy lower rates.
Ahead of announcing the Budget this week, the government reframed how it measures household income to include income from non-employment sources, such as rental income, investment income, annuities and Central Provident Fund (CPF) payouts. This allows income surveys to include households with no employed persons. The change definitively reflects Singapore’s ageing population, where a growing proportion of households comprise only non-employed persons aged 65 and over who may not have employment income but receive income from rent, investments and annuities.
The government also released its first comprehensive collation of data on household wealth, showing that the wealthiest 20 per cent of resident households in Singapore held an average net wealth of S$5.3 million in 2023 (mainly in property assets valued at S$3.4 million). Tessa Oh has the details.
Reframing household income certainly casts new light on Singaporeans’ wealth. It also paints a fuller picture of buying power and affordability, and what’s fuelling housing demand in the face of higher home prices.
After including what’s termed as “market income”, the median household income grew 6.8 per cent in 2025, in real terms. This puts the pace of income growth comfortably over the 3.3 per cent pace that private home prices rose over the last year.
Under the previous definition, real median household income rose 1.4 per cent in 2024, lagging the 3.9 per cent that private home prices gained in that year.
After a standout year for new home sales last year, early signs point to continued optimism over housing demand. A state land tender of a site in Tanjong Rhu saw developers competing fiercely to build the waterside enclave’s first new condo in decades.
A CDL-Woh Hup joint venture outbid four other parties with a higher-than-expected top bid of S$1,455 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), amounting to about S$709 million, Kalpana Rashiwala reports.
That would be the highest land rate for a 99-year government land sale (GLS) pure private residential site in the Rest of Central Region. Analysts expect that the project will be priced at around S$3,000 psf on average when it’s launched.
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