Singapore legislation
Clause 3
Clause 3
Prohibition on transfer to, or purchase or acquisition by, foreign persons of residential property
(1)
Except as provided in this Act —
no person shall, whether for consideration or by way of gift inter vivos or otherwise, transfer any residential property or any estate or interest therein to any foreign person;
no person shall create any trust for sale in respect of any residential property or any estate or interest therein in favour of any foreign person; and
no foreign person shall purchase or acquire any residential property or any estate or interest therein except by way of a mortgage, charge or reconveyance.
(2)
Any —
transfer of any residential property or of any estate or interest therein by any person to a foreign person made in contravention of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section;
trust for sale in respect of any residential property or any estate or interest therein created by any person in favour of any foreign person in contravention of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section; and
purchase or acquisition of any residential property or of any estate or interest therein by any foreign person, except by way of a mortgage, charge or reconveyance, made in contravention of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section,shall be null and void.
(3)
No estate or interest in any residential property belonging to a deceased person who dies on or after the 11th day of September 1973, shall pass by bequest, succession or inheritance to any foreign person who is beneficially entitled under a will or under any written law governing intestate succession.
(4)
Where a foreign person would, but for subsection (3) of this section, be beneficially entitled to an estate or interest in residential property, the legal personal representatives to whom probate or letters of administration are granted in respect of such residential property shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (5) of this section, be bound to sell such estate or interest in the residential property to a citizen or an approved purchaser within a period of five years of the date of the death of the deceased person and upon such sale to pay, subject to the law of wills and intestate succession, the proceeds thereof, less any expenses necessarily incurred on such sale or by reason of the administration of a deceased’s estate, to or for or on behalf of the foreign person so beneficially entitled.
(5)
Where the legal personal representatives have not sold, or have not been able to sell, the estate or interest in the residential property within the period specified in subsection (4) of this section, the legal personal representatives or the trustees of the will or estate of the deceased person for the time being shall furnish to the Controller (within such period not exceeding six months as the Controller may require) a statement setting out the particulars of the residential property which has not been sold, giving reasons for their failure or omission to sell.
(6)
The Controller, after receipt of such statement or where no such statement has been received within the time specified, may attach and sell the residential property, and the provisions of subsections (7) to (9) of section 4 and section 5 of this Act shall apply mutatis mutandis.
(7)
Where the Controller has sold the residential property pursuant to the provisions of subsection (6) of this section, the Controller shall pay the proceeds of the sale less any costs incurred to the legal personal representatives or the trustees of the will or estate of the deceased person for the time being and upon the acknowledgment of the receipt of such proceeds of sale by the legal personal representatives or the trustees, the Controller shall be discharged from all liability in respect of the application of the proceeds of sale; or the Controller, if he is unable to make payment of the proceeds of sale and to obtain such acknowledgement as aforesaid, may make payment into court of such proceeds of sale less all costs incurred thereby.
(8)
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (6) and (7) of this section, the Controller may, after receipt of the statement referred to in subsections (5) and (6) of this section, with the approval of the Minister, allow such extension of time, as the Controller may think fit, for the sale of the estate or interest in such residential property.
(9)
The provisions of this Act shall not apply to a foreign person who is a surviving joint tenant of any estate or interest in registered land within the meaning of the Land Titles Act (Cap. 276).
(10)
In this section, “letters of administration” and “probate” have the same meanings as in the Probate and Administration Act (Cap. 23).