The government's intention of forcing people to treat real estate as a long-term investment is admirable,' said Mr Ku. 'But this (the higher seller's stamp duty) will force people to hold, including some genuine cases where there might be a real need to sell off a property.In addition, Singapore lowered the LTV limit on housing loans from 70 per cent to 60 per cent for individual buyers with one or more outstanding housing loans at the time of the new home purchase.