Singapore new private home sales plunge by more than 50% in October after new curbs. What exactly are these new curbs and why target only private homes?

The new curb is not allowing the reissuing of OTP by the property developer to the buyer. This is used to be taken advantaged of because it gives the buyer a time to sell of his current property. By selling of the current property, the buyer can then avoid paying additional buyer stamp duty (for 2nd property and beyond). Therefore, if a buyer wants to buy a new launch condo now, he would only be granted 1 OTP and when this OTP expires (3 weeks), he would forfeit his booking fee (5%) to the developer.