Frasers Centrepoint buys land site in Sydney
Frasers Centrepoint, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fraser and Neave, has purchased a 13.7-hectare land site in Sydney from the Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney for S$97.8 million.Aside from constructing a 2.3-hectare open space intended for community use, the land site will be developed into...
Continue Reading • 28 Jun 2010
CentraLand acquires 80 percent stake in Zhengzhou Longma
Mainboard-listed CentraLand has announced that its unit – Henan Hezhi Company – has secured an agreement to acquire an 80 percent stake in Zhengzhou Longma.Zhengzhou Longma owns two sites out of the four land parcels that comprise Tianrong Fashion City. The two land sites have a total...
Continue Reading • 28 Jun 2010
CMA gains approval for listing in Malaysia
CapitaMalls Asia (CMA) said it has received approval to list its Malaysia property assets on the Malaysian exchange – Bursa Malaysia.CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust (CMMT) will be the holding entity of CMA’s Malaysia-based shopping malls, with almost 1.35 billion CMMT units expected to be...
Continue Reading • 28 Jun 2010
OUE obtains S$425m loan from OCBC
Overseas Union Enterprise (OUE) has secured a S$425-million term loan facility from OCBC Bank.The mainboard-listed property and hospitality company will use the loan to fund the development and construction of a property located at Leonie Hill Road through its subsidiary Cove Development.OCBC has...
Continue Reading • 28 Jun 2010
F1 season to boost hotel prices
The economic rebound as well as travel demand have boosted hotel room rates, as hoteliers shift gears in the hope of a better take-up during this year’s Formula One (F1) Grand Prix season.At Marina Bay Sands (MBS), which has added 2,560 rooms to the Marina Bay site this year, room prices...
Continue Reading • 28 Jun 2010
Australian borrowers face harder mortgage test
Mortgage lenders in Australia are making it harder for borrowers to apply for home loans by lifting rate size of rate rises the customers must face.Research conducted by Australia's largest independent broker Mortgage Choice showed that lenders implemented rate-rise stress tests ranging from 0.75...
Continue Reading • 25 Jun 2010
More borrowers exit US mortgage programme
The US government’s effort to help people who are in danger of losing their homes is falling, with more than one-third of the 1.24 million borrowers enrolling in the US$75-billion mortgage modification programme offered by the government have dropped out.This surpasses the number of people...
Continue Reading • 24 Jun 2010
Consumer prices reach 14-month high in May
Consumer prices hit a 14-month high in May, climbing 3.2 percent on-year, according to the latest data released by the Department of Statistics (DOS).The increase was mainly due to higher housing, food and transport costs. Housing costs increased 1.6 percent as a result of higher gas and...
Continue Reading • 24 Jun 2010
DIC pension to reinvest in real estate
The pension fund of DIC Corp, which manages ¥87 billion (S$1.3 billion) of assets, intends to make investment in real estate in Japan and abroad for the first time since 2006.The retirement savings manager for approximately 6,200 employees is looking into property investing after it stopped...
Continue Reading • 24 Jun 2010
HDB loans used for downsizing into smaller flats
Over 1,200 HDB flat owners have used the recent rule to acquire a second concessionary loan from HDB, hoping to move into smaller or similar-size flats.However, many private financial institutions said that this has caused little impact on their HDB loan business, even though more households have...
Continue Reading • 23 Jun 2010
Rising yuan to benefit major sectors
Certain major sectors and regional markets are likely to reap gains from an expected boost in the yuan, after Beijing suggested that it would allow more flexibility for the valuation of the Chinese currency.Analysts pointed to a clear precedent between 2005 and 2008 when the currency rose 19...
Continue Reading • 23 Jun 2010
Asian banks are stable, says Moody's
Banks in South Korea, New Zealand and Australia are among those that are most susceptible to the European debt crisis, because lenders in these countries get much of their funds for their loan book from global capital markets, said rating agency Moody’s."If we don't see the banks...
Continue Reading • 23 Jun 2010
Australia's era of mortgage windfall is over
The global financial crisis had removed effective competition in mortgage lending, enabling Westpac and Commonwealth Bank to keep windfall gains from the transition to a new global accord on bank capital, said Mark Joiner, chief financial officer of National Australia Bank (NAB).He said that...
Continue Reading • 22 Jun 2010
SGD to remain stable despite yuan move
China’s decision to allow greater flexibility in the yuan will not affect the exchange rate policy of Singapore, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as the Singaporean dollar rose to its highest rate against the US dollar in six weeks.The People's Bank of China pointed out that...
Continue Reading • 22 Jun 2010
Citi economist forecasts 12.5 percent growth for Singapore
Forecasts of Singapore's 2010 growth have just reached a new high of 12.5 percent.A month after a half-point upgrade to 9.5 percent, Kit Wei, an economist at Citigroup, has added three full points to his full year gross domestic product (GDP) forecast on the back of “better historical...
Continue Reading • 22 Jun 2010
TCT debuts on the SGX
Treasury Holdings Real Estate has announced that Treasury China Trust (TCT) has started trading on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST).TCT is a business trust with a high-quality portfolio of commercial income-producing development and property projects located in the...
Continue Reading • 22 Jun 2010
A time for remortgages, says HSBC
The recent house price increases have caused many home owners who purchased homes between 2006 and 2008 to have adequate equity for remortgages. According to HSBC, many homeowners are now taking advantage of the low interest rates by remortgaging. Research has indicated that homeowners who...
Continue Reading • 21 Jun 2010
RAMS prompts mortgage price war in Australia
RAMS Home Loans has ignited a mortgage price war, undercutting major banks in Australia on fixed-rate mortgages.The lender slashed its two- and three-year fixed-rate mortgage by 0.31 percent.Starting June 16, two-year fixed-rate mortgages were 6.98 percent, making it the lowest rate in the fixed...
Continue Reading • 18 Jun 2010
Some Orchard Rd businesses may halt operations for 4-6 weeks
Some businesses in Orchard Rood wrecked by the recent flash floods may take at least four to six weeks to get their operations back up.The flooding is gone but establishments especially those located at Liat Towers are still picking up the pieces.At the American food chain Wendy’s, the...
Continue Reading • 18 Jun 2010
DBS to focus priority on existing operations
DBS will focus its priorities on existing businesses first, before attempting new takeovers or ventures, said Mr. Peter Seah, chairman of DBS Group.Following the rapid growth through acquisitions since the 1997-1998 Asian economic crisis, DBS is now focusing to improve the performance of its...
Continue Reading • 18 Jun 2010