Why property curbs may have failed to draw big impact on home prices

It's the demand-supply imbalance.

According to Colliers International, the key reason of a minimal price correction is the demand-supply imbalance. The demand curb measures have not addressed the shortage of residential supply in the market. new supply in the private housing market is expected to average at 16,750 units per year between 2013 and 2016.

Here's more from Colliers:

Although this figure is an improvement on the annual average new supply of 9,893 units over the previous six years (2007-2012), it is still much lower than the previous average of 27,767 units per year between 1985 and 2006.

Disregarding investment demand, pent-up demand from end-users is still enormous. not to mention the prevailing strong holding power of existing homeowners, due to an ultra-low interest rate environment, the tightening measures have discouraged owners from selling their properties as they are considering the higher cost to purchase an alternative property on the back of an increased stamp duty.