SINGAPORE, March 10 — Singapore is easing some rules in the property market, reducing sellers’ stamp duties and changing some debt-servicing ratios for loans.

The sellers’ stamp duty, currently payable on residential properties sold within four years of purchase, will now only apply for three years, the government said today in a statement. Old rates ranging from four per cent to 16 per cent of the property’s value will be cut to a new range of four per cent for properties sold in the third year to a maximum of 12 per cent for those in the first year.

The government also decided to relax the rules surrounding total debt servicing ratios after some borrowers said the rules limited their flexibility, especially in their retirement years, according to the statement. The framework on mortgage equity withdrawal loans with loan-to-value ratios of 50 per cent and below will no longer apply under the new rules.

Singapore’s government rolled out a raft of measures to cool home prices starting in 2009, with some of the strictest restrictions rolled out in 2013. Home prices fell three per cent in 2016, with prices declining for the 13th straight quarter in the last three months of the year for the longest streak since data was first published in 1975.

"Singapore’s property market had been quite weak for a period, this is more reactionary for the Singaporean government to prop up the market,” James Soutter, a portfolio manager at K2 Asset Management Ltd. in Melbourne, said by phone. — Bloomberg