"Lianhe Zaobao" reported on April 6: Although the construction industry has resumed work well, the industry still faces significant pressure in the short term. Therefore, the Singapore government has decided to extend the grace period for affected construction contracts by an additional six months so that the contract parties can continue to work together. Bear the specified additional costs.
Congress passed the Coronavirus (Temporary Assistance Measures) (Second Amendment) emergency bill on third reading yesterday. The Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of State for the Ministry of National Development, Chen Jiehao, pointed out during the second reading debate that as of March 19 this year, among the assistance notifications submitted by those unable to perform, about 1,100 were related to construction and supply contracts. Among them, only 118 or 10% of the cases later applied for the intervention of assessors. Chen Jiehao said that this shows that most industry players can negotiate concessions acceptable to all parties to the contract.
Due to the impact of the epidemic on the entire value chain of the built environment, the government passed the Coronavirus (Temporary Aid Measures) Amendment Act in November last year, allowing eligible construction contracts to automatically extend the period of four months to give contractors more time to complete the project. The latest amendment bill submitted for first reading yesterday extended the grace deadline for construction contracts, supply contracts, and related performance bonds from the original March 31 to September 30. The parties to the contract shall jointly bear the provisions that do not include the labor costs for qualified postponement expenses, which will also be extended from the end of last month to the end of September. In addition, in order to allow buyers of residential, commercial and industrial real estate more time to pay, the grace deadline for option letters and sales and purchase agreements has been extended from March 31 to June 30.
Chen Jiehao said that after consulting industry partners, the authorities believe that it is more prudent to extend assistance measures that share costs. He said: "Considering the chain relationship between construction and supply contracts at multiple levels, the expiration of the grace period may trigger a series of contract disputes, especially the industry is not yet completely stable."
Currently, construction activities have roughly returned to about 85% of their pre-epidemic levels. The developer told the authorities that most of the projects expected to be completed this year proceeded as planned and could be delivered on time. However, the industry still faces challenges such as rising labor costs and reduced productivity due to safety management measures.
(Source: Lianhe Zaobao)
