Real estate firms start registering agents
Real estate companies have started registering their agents as the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), the new statutory board established to regulate property agents in Singapore, begins operations today.New and existing real estate companies can apply to the CEA for new licenses starting...
Continue Reading • 22 Oct 2010
CCT's distributable income up 7.9%
CapitaCommerical Trust (CCT), Singapore's first listed commercial real estate investment trust (REIT), has announced that its distributable income in Q3 rose 7.9 percent to $56.2 million year-on-year, driven by lower property tax and operating expenses.However, Q3 net property income dropped 1...
Continue Reading • 21 Oct 2010
Aussie banks look to avoid backlash
Major banks in Australia may be looking for ways to minimise potential PR problems by declaring the need to increase home loan rates.John Collett at the Sydney Morning Herald, said that several bank chiefs in the country, including Gail Kelly of Westpac and Ralph Norris of Commonwealth Bank have...
Continue Reading • 21 Oct 2010
Keppel Land posts robust growth in earnings
Keppel Land Limited, Singapore’s second largest property developer, has seen an 18 percent year-on-year increase in net profit to $204.8 million for the nine months that ended September 30, 2010, attributed to the recovery of Asian property markets on improved economic conditions.Net profit...
Continue Reading • 21 Oct 2010
Local investor sentiment up 5% in Q3
Investor sentiment in Singapore has rebounded in the third quarter despite the uncertainties of the Eurozone debt crisis, continued slowdown in the US economy and the potential threat of ‘currency war’, according to the Dashboard Survey released by global financial services group ING...
Continue Reading • 20 Oct 2010
PropertyGuru teams up with 99acres
PropertyGuru.com.sg, Singapore’s largest property website, has inked an agreement with India's premier property website 99acres.com. The deal makes India the fourth nation to be added to PropertyGuru’s international menu together with Australia, Hong Kong and Macau.The move is timely,...
Continue Reading • 20 Oct 2010
Frasers to expand China presence through Modena brand
To further strengthen its presence in the short-stay service residence market, Frasers Hospitality will add 11 properties under the recently launched Modena brand in the next few years, six of which will open by 2012.This growth is expected to continue, with the brand likely to see the number of...
Continue Reading • 20 Oct 2010
BofA to resume foreclosures in 23 states
The Bank of America (BofA) has announced that it will partially lift its moratorium on foreclosures, a sign that the crisis over the US bank’s mortgage practices may be easing.BofA’s move marked one of the first positive developments after the financial sector came under pressure...
Continue Reading • 20 Oct 2010
CRCT distribution income up 3.2% in Q3
CapitaRetail China Trust (CRCT), a Singapore-based real estate investment trust (REIT), announced that its distribution income rose 3.2 percent to S$13 million in Q3, translating to an increase of 3 percent distribution per unit (DPU) to 2.08 cents.The strong distribution income result for the...
Continue Reading • 20 Oct 2010
MIT expected to raise S1.19b from IPO
The IPO of Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) has seen a strong take-up rate with an oversubscription of approximately 37.9 times, headed by demand from institutional players.This take-up means that a total of $20.1 billion of application money was released for the IPO, said MIT.MIT is expected to...
Continue Reading • 20 Oct 2010
Soilbuild tops bid for Yishun site
Soilbuild Group Holdings has offered the highest bid of $64.01 million, or $51.10 psf ppr, for an industrial site at Yishun St 23/Ave 9.The 60-year leasehold industrial plot received a total of four bids in a public tender that closed yesterday.Soilbuild's top bid was 12.3 percent higher than the...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
Local, overseas properties to undergo spot checks
Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said yesterday that flat owners will be subjected to spot checks both locally and abroad to see if they are telling the truth about private property ownership in Singapore or overseas.HDB flat buyers are required to declare any interest or ownership...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
Overseas developers to face tougher regulations here
The law governing foreign ownership of landed residential property in Singapore is set to be amended, making it more expensive for foreign property developers to speculate in land in the country.The Amendment Bill to the Residential Property Act (RPA), which was introduced in parliament...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
Barclays launches new mortgage deal in the UK
Global financial services firm Barclays has announced that it is launching “The Great Escape” remortgage deal in the UK to lure homeowners off their lenders' standard variable rate (SVR).As part of the new move, Barclays is offering homeowners who remortgage to it a lifetime tracker...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
A-REIT to enhance 3 properties
Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (A-REIT) has announced that it will be investing about $97 million to enhance three properties in its portfolio.The business space and industrial REIT made the announcement as it released results for the second quarter that ended September 30.A-REIT posted a...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
KepLand acquires two residential sites in Chengdu
Hillwest Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Land, has acquired two prime land sites in Xinjin County and Jinjiang District in Chengdu for RMB617 million (S$127 million) and RMB1.21 billion (S$249 million), respectively.The land acquisition in Xinjin County comprises of two sites with a...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
K-REIT Asia's distributable income climbs 22.2%
K-REIT Asia has seen a 22.2 percent increase in distributable income for the first nine months of 2010 at $62.5 million over the same period last year.The growth was attributed to lower interest expense and higher net property income (NPI) from the 29 percent additional interest in Prudential...
Continue Reading • 19 Oct 2010
US mortgage interest rates sink to record low
Mortgage rates in the US have reached another record low, according to a new survey conducted by Freddie Mac.The average 30-year fixed rate mortgages was 4.19 percent in the week that ended October 14, down from 4.27 percent in the previous week, which could have been the lowest rates on...
Continue Reading • 18 Oct 2010
Parkway Life Reit eyeing local nursing home sector
Parkway Life REIT is looking at the local nursing home market after it ventured into properties that offer long-term care services for the elderly in Japan.“We are looking to explore opportunities to collaborate with credible nursing care operators locally and regionally, as well as to...
Continue Reading • 18 Oct 2010
Govt remains cautious on property bubbles
The Singapore government is looking out for possible bubbles particularly in the property market, said Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.“We periodically act pre-emptively to let some air out of property bubbles before they burst with a bang,” he said at a panel discussion in the United...
Continue Reading • 18 Oct 2010