Daily Briefing: Singapore eases refinancing rules; Singapore wants more phone carriers than China

And sale of Marina Bay land set to fetch bumper price.

Singapore’s central bank is relaxing refinancing rules for some homeowners as the economy cools, making it easier for those struggling with their borrowings to roll over their mortgages. Households who are refinancing their existing mortgages will be exempted from a 60 percent cap on their total debt-servicing ratio, even if they had observed it when making the purchase, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement Thursday. Read more here.

Singapore’s population may be 0.4 percent the size of China’s but the tiny city-state may soon host a larger number of carriers than the world’s largest mobile-phone market. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said Thursday it received applications for what would be the Lion City’s fourth license to operate a mobile-phone carrier. The idea is that increased competition would bring down phone bills, improve services and help Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong step closer to turning Singapore into a “Smart Nation.” Find out more here.

The first sale of land in Singapore’s Marina Bay in nine years is set to fetch a bumper price as developers jockey for a piece of the sought-after financial district. The 1.1 hectare (2.7 acre) plot may fetch more than S$1.8 billion ($1.3 billion), according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc., or S$1,200 per square foot of gross floor area. That would make it the city’s most expensive land sale since 2007, when the Asia Square Tower I plot sold at S$2.02 billion, or a rate of S$1,409 per square foot. Read more here.