THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S negative gearing reform changes one thing: the tax treatment of investment property and as of 29 June 2026, that change is confirmed law. Commercial property ‘appears to remain unaffected by the negative gearing tax reforms’, as one industry analysis put it in July, the same tax logic applied to an asset class the reform never touched. Singapore's property tax scales with how many properties an investor holds. The logic is the same in each case: if holding property is too attractive, change the cost of holding it. A federal holding cost on investment properties, kicking in after a threshold, would directly counter the lock-in the reform just created.