Property News & Market Trends

Singapore property news in a nutshell

Dreadful envy for Horizon Towers if Grangeford goes for $592m!
Still unclear on who the final winner is over Horizon Tower surely make some people loses sleep the last 2 weeks. OUE, controlled by Lippo, went for a put-and-call option to acquire The Grangeford for $592 million or $1,810psf. The breakeven cost could easily surpass $2,200psf.

The top-up price to 99years set OUE back by $87.8m for the 33year old property. If the deal goes through, owners will receive from $2.7m to $3.43m. That will be a cool $1.6m - $1.7m profit for the 3 buyers that conclude in Feb 07! Oh, not to mention the dozens of transactions that happened in the last qtr of 2006.

Property investment sales likely to hit a whopping $35b!
Property investment sales for 2007 will surpass the $30.5b in 2006 and may hit $35 billion. The investment sales will include land deals, collective sales, transactions of entire office and other buildings, as well as strata-titled units above $5m. $8b worth of collective sale , big transactions include Leedon Heights ($835m), Char Yong Gardens ($420m) and The Ardmore ($262m) and office properties contributed around $4.8 billion.

Four partners buy Lincoln Lodge
Property developers Koh Brothers, Heeton Holdings, KSH Holdings and Lian Beng Group have joined hands to buy the freehold Lincoln Lodge for $243 million with equal stakes. This works out to be about $1450psf ppr. The partners also intend to acquire an additional state land of 3,358sft next to Lincoln Lodge. With a likely breakeven of $2,000psf, the consortium will build a 36-storey residential project with 120 luxurious apartments averaging 1,600 sq ft. To be launched in the first half of 2008, the project will see prices about $2,500 psf.

$55b cheers for the Singapore's construction industry
Singapore’s construction spending is forecast to hit $55 billion by 2011, buoyed by contracts to be awarded for the integrated resorts (IRs), and resorts at Marina Bay and Sentosa will cost a total of $10.25 billion to build, while the Sports Hub cost estimated is between $650 million and $800 million.

Changi resort proposal
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) that HG Properties emerged as the top bidder for a redevelopment site for a recreation club, hotel or holiday chalet at Fairy Point Hill in Changi. Lippo Group’s Stephen Riady, association Company with HG Properties, could be teaming up with Kechapi Pte Ltd to build this resort. Only two bids were received, HG Properties which is offering $25.5 million and Sino Land-linked entity called Precious Treasure bid of $10.68m.

Date not change for Horizon Towers - 21st June
Apparently, the September date for the appearance of objectors to the $500m Horizon Towers collective sale has been not changed; the deadline on 11 Aug still stands. If sellers don't apply for STB approval by then, the deal could be strike off. Looking at the shortfall of another possible $500-600m, why would the sellers apply for the extension. Silly, isn't it? The lure of money. Look's like a big legal tussle is in place, and the legal eagles are pretty happy they got a fight.

Prime office rent continues to rise their price
Raffles Place rental climb almost double compared to prices 12 months ago. From Anson Road to Robinson Road and Tanjong Pagar prices scale up to $8.90psf. Whereas, Marina Centre and Bugis areas have gone up 82% from a year ago. Looks like tenants & shop owners have some packing to do. 

Should agent collect the fee from tenants? 
IEA recommends that property agents collect commission from both landlord and tenant if the tenancy is below $2,500 a month. With supplies dwindling and harder to get, is there any reason why any agent would be soft-hearted to tenants? I doubt so. Agents with listings call the shots. Tenants just pay. That's life. Too bad market forces prevails, like the government encourages.

Luma will be priced at $2,500 psf. Anyone?
The 75 units FH project will be launched by Novelty Group next month. The River Valley project is asking for double the prices in the area. If they succeed, new enbloc prices will soar again.

Simon Cheong sets tonques wagging at $4000psf for the Marq
The latest to hit the market with a unique feature is The Marq on Paterson Hill by SC Global Developments. With records after records, benchmarks after benchmarks, I'm beginning to wonder if developers & enbloc owners pride themselves for setting the next highest record price?

Funny, nobody seems to stay at the top for long, unlike the tallest building. At least, Petronas last 3 years before Shanghai pierced the sky and snatched the title. - Danny 'Bingo'

More ...

	Where have the buyers gone? It's really mystifying. In the first week of July, a 3cm display ad in ST Classifieds would get hordes of enquiries. In fact, we recorded more than 50 calls for 8 projects we placed out. You can feel the adrenlain flowing. If you're a seller or an agent, you'll feel esctatic. You may change your min ... 15 Aug 2007 - Read Details
	Is the sub-prime financial breakdown in US giving us a warning? Stocks bore the brunt of it all, banks, especially. In US & Europe, fears of the sub-prime markets sent sirens the world over. Asia, at its strongest growth was not spared. Miraculously, Singapore escaped the massacre. No doubt it fall by almost 4% in a day, confidence in our economy regain some ... 12 Aug 2007 - Read Details
	Can the Government's hike on Development Charge stem the rise of En Bloc sales? Property stocks got hit by a 2% drop. I say you should buy them. Seriously, what the Government did by introducing a back to normal DC is basically a gear shift. It will not impact any big developers as they can easily pass the buck, about an increase of 2-3% of the cost to the end buyers. ... 20 Jul 2007 - Read Details
	Do you know the current supplies of properties? We know about caveats(property sold & price) but who knows the supplies, really? The government will always supply back-dated figures of new project sales, office vacancy but not the number of residential properties on the market. Is that important? If so, why is there no such mechanism in place ... 13 Jul 2007 - Read Details
	Speculators, take heed. The Government is monitoring closely. The last time the Government is a "little bit" concern, anti-speculation was introduced within 5 months in 1996. Though illy-timed, the market make a very sudden correction and history was made. Will it happen again? Unlikely. The last correction wipe off billions of dollars worth of assets of ... 3 Jul 2007 - Read Details
	Singapore property news in a nutshell Dark clouds over Horizon Towers deal for HPL or Owners?Horizon Towers condominium $500m deal could be off if the objectors have it their way. However, the Strata Titles Board brought the hearing forward after an appeal to stop the delay. The date for the tribunal to hear the objectors to the sale wa ... 21 Jun 2007 - Read Details
	Why 90% of us failed to Succeed? The property market is hot yet there are still many who don't seem to make more than they could. In this kind of market, making $2-3k pm is considered way below par. If you are one of those who don't seem to cut it, did you ask yourself why? Some men have thousands of reasons why they can't do what ... 19 Jun 2007 - Read Details
	Singapore property news in a nutshell. Supplies pouring in from GovernmentGovernment Land Sales (GLS) programme confirmed list of site to sustain building pace in Bay area. Marina view, to be open for tender in July, could provide more than 900,000 sqft of commercial space and the government is hoping this would ease the supply for prime ... 18 Jun 2007 - Read Details
	Back with a Vengence! Agents are raking in fast & furious! Just 2 years back, agents are complaining about everything. From cost to economy and government. Now, they don't complain - no time to, that is. Instead of only having top 5% earning 5 figure incomes, now 20% hits that figure, at least 2 to 3 times over the last 6 months! So, when will all these gl ... 18 Jun 2007 - Read Details
	Singapore property news in a nutshell $885.5m foreign investments in just 6 months!Compared to $651.84m in 2006! That's 20% more at half time. That's what drives the prices of enbloc in all areas. Just a peep into the crystal ball will tell us that 2007 will be the greatest enbloc sales ever to occur in Singapore! With such massive ... 14 Jun 2007 - Read Details