Singapore: Singapore raised down payment requirements for second mortgages and boosted sales taxes to curb property speculation, sending shares of the city's biggest developers down the most in at least 11 months.

Individuals with more than one mortgage can borrow up to 60 per cent of a property's value, down from 70 per cent, while the stamp duty on homes and land sold within one year will rise more than fivefold, the government said in a statement on Thursday.

CapitaLand and City Developments fell more than 3 per cent on concern the government's intensified efforts to cool record home prices will dent sales. Singapore follows Hong Kong in raising sales taxes and loan restrictions as economies across Asia seek to damp the threat of asset bubbles caused by capital inflows and low interest rates.

Keeping watch

"The government is erring on the side of caution," Donald Han, Singapore-based managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, the world's largest closely held real estate services company said.

"We need to monitor this because history has shown that some of these measures lasted only two to three months, and the market comes right back to full life again."

Singapore private home prices climbed to a record as the nation's fastest economic growth since independence in 1965 overwhelmed government measures to cool the market.

Attempts to rein in prices started in 2009 when interest-only loans for some housing projects were barred and developers were barred from covering interest payments for apartments still being built.

Singapore's Straits Times Real Estate Index fell as much as 1.5 per cent, with 27 index members out of 38 falling on Thursday.

CapitaLand, Southeast Asia's biggest developer, declined as much as 3.9 per cent and was 3.1 per cent lower at S$3.72, the biggest decline since February 2010.

City Developments declined as much as 5.2 per cent and recently fell 4.1 per cent lower at S$12.22, the most since October.

Singapore joins markets across Asia that added measures to curb property speculation driven by low interest rates.

Singapore's three-month interbank rate fell to 0.43751 per cent on January 3, the lowest since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1999. It was at 0.43779 per cent on Thursday.

Hong Kong imposed additional taxes and higher down payments in Nov-ember after home prices climbed more than 50 per cent since the beginning of 2009.

China, battling at least 18 months of price increases, suspended third mortgages and raised interest rates for the first time in three years. Singapore's homeowners who sell a property within a year of purchase will now have to pay a tax of 16 per cent, from 3 per cent before.

That drops to 12 per cent in the second year, 8 per cent in the third, and 4 per cent in the final year.

The government also said it will take further steps if necessary.