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(SINGAPORE) Changes to Central Provident Fund (CPF) schemes announced a year ago will take effect on July 1, but property consultants do not expect them to have a significant effect on the property market.

Of the four changes, two - the phasing out of the Non-Residential Properties Scheme (NRPS) and restrictions on the use of CPF savings for multiple property purchases - will impact the market directly.

From next month, only those who have set aside the prevailing Minimum Sum cash component of $47,300 in their Ordinary and Special Accounts can use their CPF savings on a second property. But Singaporeans' appetite for property investments has been waning anyway.

'In the past couple of years, there have been people who lost money in the property and stock market, and they are now more careful about how they invest their money,' said ERA Real Estate vice-president Eugene Lim.

On dropping the NRPS, the CPF Board said earlier that take-up had been low. The scheme covers commercial properties including offices, warehouses and shops. Mr Lim expects buyers of retrofitted shophouses in the $1 million price range to be most affected. But even so, this is not a large market.

Knight Frank director Nicholas Mak said the changes are meant to have more of a 'mid- to long-term effect'.

CPF changes that took effect earlier - allowing non-related singles to use CPF savings, and extending the cap on the age of leasehold properties that can be bought with CPF savings - may have had a positive effect on the property market.

Mr Mak said the latest changes are likely to curb 'over-investing in property' especially for buyers in the 'upgrader and mass markets'. He added: 'Previously, this segment of buyers would have had more liquidity to buy bigger units.'

Although the property market seems to have had a 'shot in the arm' from the buoyant high-end segment, Mr Mak said 'the recovery of the mass-market has been less than spectacular'. As such, he is concerned that the changes could contribute to the slow pick-up of the mass market.

In the latest analysis of property transactions in Q1 2006 by DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, the number of transactions by purchasers with Housing Development Board addresses have fallen 14 per cent quarter on quarter.

DTZ executive director Ong Choon Fah, however, believes the mass-market is hampered by a lack of new launches. Noting that the take-up at GuocoLand's The Quartz in Buangkok is 'quite decent', she adds: 'There will be no impact on the mass-market from the CPF changes because most are buying their first property.'

The other CPF changes that take effect from July 1 include the transfer of excess Medisave Account contributions to Special or Retirement Account instead of the Ordinary Account, and the increase in CPF Minimum Sum, Medisave Minimum Sum and Medisave Contribution Ceiling.