Daily Briefing: Property market can shake off tax hike, REDAS head says; IKEA starts Singapore solar power project

And here’s how much BreadTalk’s 2017 dividends will be.

From Reuters:

Singapore’s decision to increase stamp duty on expensive home purchases is unlikely to derail a recovery in the city-state’s housing market, with modest price gains still expected this year, the head of a property developers’ association said on Friday.

The government this week raised the stamp duty on the portion of a residential property’s value above$1m ($761,615) to 4% from 3%.

“Although the stamp duty hike may add some friction to transaction volumes and buyers are still price-sensitive, it is unlikely to derail the recovery,” Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, said at an industry gathering.

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From The Motley Fool:

The board has proposed a final dividend of 2.0 cents per share and a special dividend of 1.0 cent per share for the fourth quarter. This brings the full year dividend to 7.0 cents per share, up 81.8% from 3.85 cents paid out in 2016.

The following is a summary of BreadTalk’s outlook: “Looking into 2018, the Management team is excited to kick-start our partnership with Shinmei Corporation, following our JV signing on 22 December 2017. The team will be working intensively with our partners in FY2018 to improve our procurement efforts, generate greater economies of scale, cost savings and new dining concepts for our core F&B businesses.”

Read more here.

From Bloomberg Finance:

Lars Svensson, Sustainability and Communications Director and Group Sustainability Manager of IKEA Southeast Asia joined Stephen Engle to discuss their innovative project using solar power to cool. He explains how much the project can reduce electricity costs and the importance of integrating sustainability to everyday business.

Read more here.