Recent blog posts - Property Launches & Investments

Singapore slowdown: Have ultra-rich properties hit bottom?

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Wednesday, 17 June 2015 in Property News

This is the seventh in a series of stories on global property that examines the shifts and trends in the housing market on the international stage.

Rental Yield along the North-South MRT Line

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Wednesday, 27 May 2015 in Property News

According to the SRX Property Index, apartment rents are down 6% in the last year.

Landlords are watching this number very closely as a drop in rent means a decline in their income.

A decline in income leads to a decline in gross rental yield, which is defined as annual rental income divided by the home’s purchase price.

While a landlord can try to offset a decline in income with a reduction in expenses and taxes, a decline in rent is not good.

Do Property Prices Always Recover and Go Up Higher?

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Monday, 25 May 2015 in Property News

Recently, there were reports on units in high-end condominium projects being sold at a big loss. As property buyers, we often hear from developers and property agents that property prices will always go up in the long run.

Does the property market always manage to recover, with prices going higher than the previous peak? Is it true that any time is a good time to buy? Below is an abstract from my book No B.S. Guide to Property Investment about one of my real-life property stories and the lessons learned.

The A to Z of Seletar Aerospace Park

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Friday, 22 May 2015 in Property News

Aviation Correspondent Karamjit Kaur and Royston Sim visited the former British military base recently to file this A-Z report.

WHEN Seletar Camp’s $60 million makeover plan was unveiled five years ago, the site consisted mostly of pre-war aircraft hangars and colonial houses. Today, visitors to the former British military air base are greeted by a very different sight.

Singapore new private home sales jump 83.4% in April

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Monday, 18 May 2015 in Property News

SINGAPORE - Sales of new private residential units rose 83.4 per cent in April from March, boosted by two condominium launches, according to figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Friday.

Developers sold 1,124 new homes in the month, which saw 1,344 units being launched. April's sales were the highest since May 2014 and compared to 613 units sold in March.

April's sales were also 47.5 per cent up from a year back, where 762 new private homes were sold and 606 units launched.

Jurong East may see more manufacturing firms moving in: Analysts

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Tuesday, 12 May 2015 in Property News

Jurong East is envisioned as the second Central Business District, analysts say it is likely to attract companies different from those in downtown Singapore.

SINGAPORE: Property analysts have said the location of the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High Speed Rail (HSR) terminus at Jurong East is strategic to future commercial developments.

But even as Jurong East is being envisioned as the second Central Business District, some analysts said the area is unlikely to replicate the downtown core. Instead, the area may see more manufacturing companies moving in, especially firms that have production plants in the Iskandar development zone, or further into Malaysia.

Jurong Country Club acquired for High-Speed Rail terminus

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Tuesday, 12 May 2015 in Property News

The Jurong Country Club will hand over the land by November 2016, and the site will be comprehensively redeveloped for new mixed-use developments and community facilities, together with the High-Speed Rail terminus

SINGAPORE: The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail terminus will be located at the current site of Jurong Country Club, announced the Singapore Land Authority, the Land Transport Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority in a joint news conference on Monday (May 11).

This follows the announcement Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made last week after a bilateral retreat with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak. Mr Lee said then that Singapore will site its terminus in Jurong East.

URA- Release of 1st Quarter 2015 real estate statistics

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Sunday, 26 April 2015 in Property News

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released today the real estate statistics for 1st Quarter 20151.

PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES

Private residential market at a glance (excluding ECs):

Singapore Property Gloom Has Silver Lining for Investors

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Monday, 20 April 2015 in Property News

Here’s a good reason to own Singapore property shares: you might not have to own them for long.

Investors from ABN Amro Private Banking to Baring Asset Management Ltd. are eyeing developers that may be taken private by their parents as 66 percent of the companies trade at less than the value of their net assets. Six developers were bought out since 2010 at an average share-price premium of 26 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. In the most recent and largest transaction, Keppel Corp. paid S$2.7 billion ($2 billion) for the rest of Keppel Land Ltd. in March.

Paya Lebar Commercial site with conditions

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Tuesday, 14 April 2015 in Property News

Singapore- THE Urban Redevelopment Authority has finally released a much anticipated, big-ticket mixed development site in Paya Lebar Central.

Nearly 55 per cent of the project's maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 164,794 square metres (about 1.77 million square feet) has to be for office use. The rest of the space can be for additional office,retail, entertainment, F&B and residential uses.

Small strata office and retail units will not be in play for this project, as URA is limiting the number of strata lots to just five for the entire office component of at least 90,000 sq m (968,751 sq ft) GFA. This points to an average strata office size of under 200,000 sq ft. For the retail and activity-generating uses, not more than three strata lots will be allowed. The residential component can comprise up to 440 individually strata titled units.

Market watchers reckon that URA is not allowing small strata units so as to preserve the project's image and quality given that the land parcel, which features two adjacent plots next to the Paya Lebar East-West Line and Circle Line MRT stations, will be the centrepiece of URA's plans for developing a major commercial hub at the fringe of the city.

No small strata office, retail units allowed for Beach Road site

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Monday, 13 April 2015 in Property News

A MINIMUM 70 per cent office component has been stipulated for the commercial site next to Shaw Tower along Beach Road.

Small strata office or retail units will not be allowed in this 99-year leashold site, which has just been made available for applications by developers through the reserve list.

Market watchers estimate that its price will come in at more than S$1,000 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) if it were to go on the market today.

The site is on the reserve list for the current second-half 2014 Government Land Sales Programme.

Beach Road to bask underswanky new developments

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Monday, 13 April 2015 in Property News

THE once sleepy Beach Road area is undergoing a dramatic makeover as property giants roll in with ambitious plans for a series of mixed developments.

Three new integrated projects are already on the go, with at least one more to come following the release of a new site in the Government Land Sales programme last week.

The commercial and residential plot, which came from the reserve list, can accommodate a 45-storey complex of 947,223 sq ft.

The 2ha plot will go to tender only if a developer first submits a bid price acceptable to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

It is estimated to cost from $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion - or $1,300 to $1,400 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio.

Mixed-use developments making a comeback in Singapore's comeback

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Monday, 13 April 2015 in Property News

MIXED-USE developments are nothing new globally but they have seen a resurgence in Singapore over the last few years. The Singapore Central Business District (CBD) has been undergoing a transformation since the early 2000s with the government's push to encourage city living and ensure that the CBD remains lively during both the evenings and the weekends.

Historically, the CBD has been dominated by pure office buildings plus a number of hotels and supporting retail amenities.

Siting flats further from city ‘may widen S’pore’s social divide’

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Saturday, 11 April 2015 in Property News

SINGAPORE — With less public housing being built in Singapore’s city centre than in the past, a paper published recently by the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) raised the question of whether this may lead to “enclaves” of wealth and social stratification.

In the paper, titled How Should Singapore Improve Spatial Diversity and Equity In The City Centre, author Wu Wei Neng asked whether there is a need to build more public homes in central districts to foster social cohesion and promote social mobility in the population.

More Concerns Over Singapore Property Market

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Thursday, 09 April 2015 in Property News

Sales of Singapore’s high-end properties have been sluggish for a while, and developers faced with a ticking clock on high charges for unsold units may take drastic measures to change that, but probably not price cuts. “Price is not the issue. The issue is there’s no demand,” Derrick Heng, a property analyst at Maybank-Kim Eng, said Tuesday.

It’s not just a matter of sitting on the unsold units while waiting for buyers to return. Developers in Singapore are running out of time: any units still unsold two years after a project’s completion face an “extension charge,” of 8 percent of the proportional land cost for the first year, rising to 16 percent in the second year and 24 percent in the third. It’s a measure aimed at preventing property hoarding by “foreign” developers in the land-starved city-state.

The only way to avoid the charges is if the developer is Singaporean or the company has only Singaporean shareholders and board members. “Penalties for unsold units under the qualification certificate (QC) ruling may persuade some developers to go down the de-listing path,” Heng said in a note late last month.

Blackstone Singapore Property Bet Seen Winning on Elections

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Wednesday, 01 April 2015 in Property News

(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP’s Stephen Schwarzman, who correctly bet on a U.S. housing recovery, is now making a similar wager on Singapore’s luxury property market.

Singapore’s success in using administrative measures to cool its real estate market -- luxury prices have fallen about 20 percent in the past two years while Hong Kong’s have kept rising -- means the restrictions are likely to get lifted, the Blackstone chairman said last week. His firm has been investing in high-end developments over the past four months.

Property has become Blackstone’s biggest profit driver as record-low interest rates and a U.S. economic recovery pushed prices higher. With Singapore poised to hold elections in the next two years, Schwarzman’s call on the luxury segment is a timely one, property analysts said.

Development charges DC for condo sites cut again

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Saturday, 28 March 2015 in Property News

IN A tough market, some modestly good news emerged for developers yesterday as development charges (DCs) for condo and other non-landed sites fell again.

Developers pay DCs to the Government for enhancing the use of a site or building a bigger project.

The Ministry of National Development said it has cut DC rates for non-landed residential use by an average of 3.2 per cent, the second straight cut - in line with property price moderation.

Private Resale Flats End Year FLAT

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Saturday, 28 March 2015 in Property News

Observations:

Non-landed Private Residential Resale prices inched up 0.1%. Non-landed Private Residential Resale prices increased 0.1% in December compared to November 2014. This increase is driven by transactions in OCR where prices went up 0.5%. On the other hand, prices dropped in CCR and RCR by 1.1%, and 1.2%, respectively.

According to the SRX Non-landed Private Residential Price Index:

Year-on-year, prices have dropped 4.2% from December 2013;
Prices have declined 6.1% since the recent peak in Jan 2014.

Shophouses sizzle amid cool Singapore property market

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Friday, 27 March 2015 in Property News

SINGAPORE - Shophouses in Singapore are seeing a surge in investor interest.

Their median price has more than doubled from $1,455 psf in the fourth quarter of 2009 to a record of $3,772 psf in the fourth quarter of last year, said real estate consultancy Colliers.

Median rents have also risen over the last five years, said Ms Chia Siew Chuin, Colliers' director of research and advisory. Quarterly median rents generally remained below $4 psf per month before 2012, but they hit a record $5.42 psf per month in the fourth quarter of last year.

Why the biggest wealth fund is set to spend up on Tokyo and Singaporean property

Posted by Property Launch Invest on Thursday, 26 March 2015 in Property News

(Bloomberg) -- Norway’s wealth fund is making final preparations for its first Asian real estate investment as it builds a portfolio of properties in the world’s biggest cities.

After scouring Asia for investment opportunities, the $870 billion fund, built from Norway’s oil revenue, has narrowed its search to Singapore and Tokyo, said Karsten Kallevig, head of real estate investments at the Oslo-based fund.

“Tokyo is arguably the single biggest market in the world for real estate,” he said in a March 20 interview. While the fund doesn’t have an ultimate spending target, “we can invest a lot in Asia,” he said.

PROPERTY LAUNCHES & INVESTMENTS

Property Launches & Investments

Jurong East is envisioned as the second Central Business District, analysts say it is likely to attract companies different from those in downtown Singapore.

The Jurong Country Club will hand over the land by November 2016, and the site will be comprehensively redeveloped for new mixed-use developments and community facilities, together with the High-Speed Rail terminus

PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES