S'pore is Asia's 9th most expensive location for expats
By Romesh Navaratnarajah:Singapore has fallen three spots to the 36th most expensive location in the world for expatriates, according to the latest report on cost of living by human resources consultants ECA International. Within Asia, the city-state is ranked 9th, one spot higher than Hong...
Continue Reading • 6 Jun 2013
Agent jailed, fined for unlicensed moneylending
By Shabnam Muzammil:Lee Pit Chin, director of a real estate company, was sentenced to three months in jail and fined S$160,000 for unlicensed moneylending offences.He was fined an additional S$314,000 for providing unsecured loans to borrowers and submitting false returns to the Registrar of...
Continue Reading • 6 Jun 2013
Hooker targets children
By Andrew Batt:An Australian real estate agency has introduced a marketing campaign which is targeting children as the next generation of property buyers.Mr Hooker Bear (pictured) is the brainchild of LJ Hooker, one of the country’s leading real estate agencies, and has recently launched an...
Continue Reading • 5 Jun 2013
Gay property portal gets bought
By Romesh Navaratnarajah:US-based real estate brokerage Hammerberg & Associates, the parent company of GayRealEstate.com, has acquired its California-based competitor GayRealEstateAgents.com for an undisclosed price.This acquisition expands Hammerberg & Associates’ portfolio of gay...
Continue Reading • 4 Jun 2013
S'pore firm acquires land in India
By Shabnam Muzammil:L&W Construction, a fully-owned subsidiary of Singapore's Lee Kim Tah Woh Hup, has purchased a 10.1ha prime land site in Devanahalli, Bangalore for INR1 billion (S$22.09 million), in a sale advised by Jones Lang LaSalle’s India office.“This is an extremely...
Continue Reading • 4 Jun 2013
Govt creating soft landing for housing market
By Shabnam Muzammil:The government is “engineering a soft-landing” for the housing market, according to National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan.In his latest blog post, Mr Khaw said this would require a bit of luck with factors beyond the government’s control, such as the...
Continue Reading • 4 Jun 2013
Property agents to donate part of sales commission
By Shabnam Muzammil:Real estate agents at PropNex have pledged to donate a portion of their commission to Community Chest to raise a total of S$100,000 for three schools dedicated to children with multiple disabilities, reported Asia One.The three beneficiaries are MINDS Towner Gardens School,...
Continue Reading • 31 May 2013
SingHaiyi boosts profit to S$4.29m for FY 2013
By Shabnam Muzammil:SingHaiyi Group has achieved a significant boost in its net profit attributable to shareholders to S$4.29 million for FY 2013 ended 31 March, mainly due to fair value gain on investment properties and revenue from Charlton Residences (pictured) which was sold out in March...
Continue Reading • 31 May 2013
Another agent runs foul of CEA rules
By Shabnam Muzammil:The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) has charged property agent Mustafa Kamal Bin Seri for receiving payment from a licensed moneylender for the loans made by his clients and handling transaction monies for his clients.52-year old Mustafa was a registered salesperson when he...
Continue Reading • 30 May 2013
KSH net profit shot up 84.6%
By Shabnam Muzammil:Property and construction firm KSH Holdings has reported its net profit surged 84.6 percent to S$37.6 million while net profit attributable to shareholders almost doubled to S$36.3 million for the year ended 31 March 2013 (FY2013).This was attributed to a 41.8 percent rise in...
Continue Reading • 28 May 2013
Town council review to take place soon
By Nikki De Guzman:The government will soon conduct a strategic review of town councils to provide better service to all residents, according to Senior Minister of State for National Development Lee Yi Shyan, who has been tasked to look into the issue.The review aims to improve the way town...
Continue Reading • 27 May 2013
S'pore economy to grow 2.3% in 2013: report
By Nikki De Guzman:Recovering from a weak performance, Singapore’s growth momentum is on an upward trend due to rising industrial production in the country, recent data said.According to Spanish banking group BBVA, the country’s Q1 GDP was revised up to +0.2 percent year-on-year...
Continue Reading • 27 May 2013
Soilbuild IPO oversubscribed 7.5 times
By Nikki De Guzman:Soilbuild Construction Group’s IPO of 168 million new shares has drawn substantial interest from investors. Excluding the parties specified under Rule 232 and Rule 240 of the SGX-ST Listing Manual, the IPO was 7.5 times oversubscribed and attracted application monies of...
Continue Reading • 27 May 2013
Cooling measures have discouraged multiple property purchases
By Nikki De Guzman:The number of home loan applicants buying private property without any outstanding loans continued to increase in Q1 2013, according to Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS). According to analysts, this implies that the seventh round of cooling measures implemented in January have...
Continue Reading • 23 May 2013
More S'pore companies entering Tianjin Eco-City
By Nikki De Guzman:Around 60 Singapore companies have poured in US$850 million (S$1.07 billion) worth of investments into the massive Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project.Master developer Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development announced this at a recent investment seminar...
Continue Reading • 22 May 2013
Cooling measures fairly successful: MAS head
By Nikki De Guzman:The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) macroprudential measures are said to have achieved “some degree of success” in cooling the property market and will be tweaked depending on market conditions.At a dinner organised on Tuesday by the Asian Bureau of...
Continue Reading • 22 May 2013
Jones Lang acquires Halcyon Real Estate
By Romesh Navaratnarajah:Singapore-based boutique property firm Halcyon Real Estate has been acquired by Jones Lang LaSalle, further expanding the consultancy’s presence in the local residential market. Founded in 2009, Halcyon Real Estate specialises in residential project leasing in the...
Continue Reading • 21 May 2013
Construction player to tap on 6.9m population growth
By Shabnam Muzammil:Although many Singaporeans have expressed concerns about the projected 6.9 million population growth by 2030, some construction firms are looking to capitalise on this hot-button issue to grow their business.Ho Toon Bah, Executive Director of Soilbuild Construction Group,...
Continue Reading • 17 May 2013
Govt gets tough on living conditions of foreign workers
By Shabnam Muzammil:In a recent blog post, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) revealed that 300 site inspections were carried out over the last four months in an effort to curb unacceptable living conditions among foreign workers.This corresponds to over a third of the 865 inspections conducted for...
Continue Reading • 16 May 2013
Marina Bay a great push for finance industry
By Romesh Navaratnarajah:Singapore’s financial sector needs to attract more high-quality investments to help create more jobs. Speaking at the opening of Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed the need to build a local pool of leaders and...
Continue Reading • 16 May 2013