Residential Property Bill

Bill No. 33/1975

Read the first time on 29th July 1975.
An Act to restrict the purchase or transfer of residential properties (including vacant land) to citizens of Singapore and approved purchasers, and to provide for matters connected therewith, and to make consequential amendments to the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act (Chapter 268 of the Revised Edition), the Land Titles Act (Chapter 276 of the Revised Edition) and the Registration of Deeds Act (Chapter 281 of the Revised Edition).
Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows: —
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title and commencement
1.  This Act may be cited as the Residential Property Act, 1975, and shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 11th day of September 1973.
Interpretation
2.—(1)  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“approved purchaser” means —
(a)a local company;
(b)a local society;
(c)a foreign person to whom approval has been granted under section 16 of this Act; or
(d)any person, foreign company, society, association or other organisation or body who or which has been exempted by the Minister under the provisions of section 22 of this Act;
“citizen” or “citizen of Singapore” means any person who, under the provisions of the Constitution of Singapore, has the status of a citizen of Singapore;
[RS (A) 14/66.]
“Committee” means the Residential Property Advisory Committee established under section 16 of this Act;
“Controller” means the Controller of Residential Property and includes a Deputy and an Assistant Controller of Residential Property appointed under section 19 of this Act;
“Controller of Housing” means the Controller of Housing appointed under section 3 of the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act (Cap. 250);
“court” means the High Court;
“dwelling-house” includes any building or tenement, or any part thereof, which is used, constructed or adapted for use for human habitation;
“foreign company”, whether a holding company or otherwise, means —
(a)a company, body corporate, association or other body incorporated outside Singapore;
(b)any body corporate formed or incorporated in Singapore, some or all of whose members or directors are not citizens, or in the case of a member being another company, where some or all of the members or directors of such other company are not citizens; or
(c)an unincorporated society, association or other body which under the law of its place of origin may sue or be sued, or hold property in the name of the secretary or other officer of the body or association duly appointed for that purpose (whether or not its head office or principal place of business is in Singapore), some or all of whose members or directors are not citizens, or in the case of a member being another company, where some or all of the members or directors of such other company are not citizens;
“foreign person” means —
(a)any person who is not a citizen;
(b)any permanent resident;
(c)any foreign company; or
(d)any society,
who or which has not been granted approval under section 16 of this Act or has not been exempted by the Minister under section 22 of this Act, but does not include —
(i)any local company;
(ii)any local society; or
(iii)any body, corporate or otherwise, declared by the Minister by notification in the Gazette to be a public authority or an instrumentality or agency of the Government;
“land” includes land, freehold and leasehold, or of whatever tenure, whether or not held apart from the surface, and buildings or parts thereof (whether completed or otherwise and whether divided horizontally, vertically or in any other manner), and tenements and hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal;
“local company” means a company formed or incorporated in Singapore, all of whose members and directors are citizens, or in the case of a member being another company, where all the members and directors of such other company are citizens;
“local society” means a society registered or exempted under the Societies Act (Cap. 262), all of whose members are citizens and all of whose trustees are either citizens or a trust company registered under the Trust Companies Act (Cap. 207);
“Master Plan” means the Master Plan including the written statement submitted to and approved by the Governor in Council on 5th August, 1958 under the provisions of Part IV of the Singapore Improvement Ordinance (Cap. 259, 1955 Ed) and the rules made thereunder, and includes all alterations and additions thereto submitted to and approved by the Governor in Council or the Minister under those provisions and rules and the provisions of Part II of the Planning Act (Cap. 279) and the rules made thereunder;
“member”, in relation to a foreign company or local company, includes any person entitled under the memorandum or articles of association or any resolution of the foreign company or local company to participate in its assets or in its divisible profits;
“Minister” means the Minister for Law and the Environment;
“mortgage” includes every instrument creating a mortgage or charge on land or a transfer of a mortgage or a sub-mortgage;
“permanent resident” means any person who is not subject to any restriction as to his period of residence in Singapore imposed under the provisions of any written law relating to immigration for the time being in force, and includes any person resident in Singapore who is deemed by the Committee, in its discretion, in the circumstances of any particular case to be a permanent resident for the purposes of this Act;
“Registrar” means —
(a)the Registrar of Titles and includes a Deputy Registrar of Titles and an Assistant Registrar of Titles appointed under the Land Titles Act (Cap. 276); and
(b)where the occasion requires, the Registrar of Deeds and includes a Deputy Registrar of Deeds appointed under the Registration of Deeds Act (Cap. 281);
“residential property” includes —
(a)any vacant land upon which no building or other structure exists or any land upon which exists any building or other structure which is constructed or used contrary to any written law;
(b)any house, building or other premises or any part thereof which is permitted to be used pursuant to the Planning Act (Cap. 279) or any other written law as a dwelling-house or which is lawfully so used;
(c)any land zoned for residential purposes in the Master Plan; and
(d)such other land or building, in whatever manner zoned in the Master Plan, as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be residential property for the purposes of this Act,
but does not include —
(i)any land, whether or not vacant, which is zoned for industrial or commercial purposes or both such purposes in the Master Plan or which is permitted to be used pursuant to the Planning Act (Cap. 279) or any other written law solely for industrial or commercial purposes or both such purposes;
(ii)any house, building or other premises, or any part thereof, which is permitted to be used pursuant to the Planning Act or any other written law solely for industrial or commercial purposes or both such purposes or which is lawfully so used;
(iii)any hotel registered under the provisions of the Hotels Act (Cap. 248); and
(iv)such other land or building, in whatever manner zoned in the Master Plan, as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be industrial, commercial or non-residential property for the purposes of this Act;
“society” means —
(a)any club, organisation, institution or association of persons registered or exempted under the Societies Act (Cap. 262) or constituted under any written law, some or all of whose members are not citizens, or in the case of a member being a body corporate, where some or all of whose members or trustees are not citizens;
(b)any trade union, co-operative society, mutual benefit organisation or other body or organisation registered or required to be registered under any written law; or
(c)any statutory body constituted under any written law;
“to transfer”, with reference to residential property, means to convey, sell, assign, settle, create by declaration of trust, assent or in any manner dispose of any estate or interest in residential property, and includes the vesting of any estate or interest in residential property, but does not include a transfer by way of mortgage, charge or reconveyance; and “transfer” includes a conveyance, sale, assignment, settlement, declaration of trust, assent, disposition of whatever nature, the vesting of any estate or interest in residential property by an instrument or under a vesting order of court and every instrument capable of vesting any estate or interest in residential property upon registration of such instrument by the Registrar, but does not include a mortgage, charge or reconveyance.
(2)  The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law.
(3)  This Act shall not apply to the purchase or acquisition by, or a transfer to, a foreign person of any estate or interest in any flat (within the meaning of the Land Titles (Strata) Act (Cap. 277)) comprised in any building containing six or more storeys including the ground floor.