Golf course land to be redeveloped
The government will not renew the land lease of Keppel Club and will acquire parts of the fairways at the National Service Resort and Country Club and Tanah Merah Country Club by end-2014, according to media reports.The move will free up about 200ha of land for other uses.The land occupied by...
Continue Reading • 17 Feb 2014
Overseas shows back in full swing
Overseas property exhibitions in Singapore return to full strength this weekend after the Chinese New Year break.Once again London will feature prominently, and taking centre stage is Royal Gateway (pictured) in the Royal Docks area in the east of the U.K. capital.Jones Lang LaSalle is showcasing...
Continue Reading • 14 Feb 2014
S$193m bid for Sengkang EC site
Phoenix Real Estate, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingHaiyi Group, has submitted the provisional highest bid of S$193 million for a 99-year leasehold executive condominium site in Anchorvale Crescent, Sengkang.The highest of 12 bids, it was followed by MCL Land (Brighton) and Fantasia Investment...
Continue Reading • 14 Feb 2014
Why resale prices in the CCR will decline further in 2014
The Central Core Region of Singapore is currently the worst-performing in the private resale market, as our story ‘The Reality of the Resale Market’ earlier this week highlighted.Using official government data PropertyGuru revealed that average private resale prices in the Core...
Continue Reading • 14 Feb 2014
Further falls for property stocks
Slowing home sales are expected to see the value of stocks in Singapore and Hong Kong property developers fall further, according to media reports.Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Real Estate Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Property Index fell to their lowest levels for almost 18 months...
Continue Reading • 14 Feb 2014
Sales of smaller units decline
Sales of so-called shoebox units in Singapore are declining, and questions remain as to how popular smaller-sized units will be in future years.According to official government data analysed by PropertyGuru, there were 2,057 units measuring below 500 sq ft in size sold during 2013. This compares...
Continue Reading • 14 Feb 2014
Home sales, suburban launches drop amid TDSR climate
Suburban projects saw unit sales and launches drop to their lowest levels in 2H2013 since the 2008 global financial crisis, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle.Mass market private homes also saw take-up rates plunge to its lowest level since 1H2008 between July to December last year.This...
Continue Reading • 13 Feb 2014
Koh Brothers awarded $98m contract to build Yishun BTO
Singapore-listed construction and property development company Koh Brothers Group has clinched a $98 million building contract from the housing board for a Build-to-Order (BTO) project in Yishun. Vine Grove @ Yishun (pictured) will consist of five 13-storey blocks and one seven-storey block,...
Continue Reading • 13 Feb 2014
Forget COV, welcome to CUV
The days of COV (cash-over-valuation) are already coming to an end as incidents of CUV – cash-under-valuation transactions – become more common in all sectors of Singapore’s property resale market.Examples of property buyers having to pay as much as S$100,000 above valuation...
Continue Reading • 13 Feb 2014
5 Romantic getaways in Singapore
‘There's nothing to do in Singapore'.Almost every person born and bred here would have uttered those words at least once in their life and with good reason.On this tiny island where nearly every building is identical and every major shopping mall is part of a franchise chain carrying the...
Continue Reading • 13 Feb 2014
Jakarta still top luxury property hotspot
Jakarta remains the world's hottest luxury property market with prices in the city’s high-end segment soaring 37.7 percent in 2013, according to Knight Frank’s Prime Global Cities Index which was reported in the media. Liam Bailey, global head of residential research at Knight...
Continue Reading • 13 Feb 2014
40% of property owners qualify for TDSR exemptions, report says
Around 40 percent of homeowners in Singapore are eligible for exemptions from the TDSR, based on a recent Credit Suisse Proprietary Housing Survey.The survey polled about 300 respondents and found that 90 percent own a property, of which 49 percent have a mortgage and 83 percent are...
Continue Reading • 13 Feb 2014
The reality of the resale market
Average resale prices of private properties across Singapore – excluding landed homes – fell by 0.98 percent month-on-month during January contrary to news reports earlier this week which suggested average prices in the city-state had increased by 2.3 percent over the same period.As...
Continue Reading • 12 Feb 2014
Tokyo project gets positive response
Japan, tipped by many established property investors as being one of the property investment hotspots for 2014, was attracting the attention of Singapore property buyers and investors last weekend.Local real estate agency OrangeTee was exhibiting Branz Azabu Mamiana-Cho – a 140-unit...
Continue Reading • 12 Feb 2014
Luxury property sales in China to surge this year
Transaction volumes in China’s luxury housing market is expected to increase this year following the lifting of curbs on pre-sale licenses, according to industry analysts quoted in the media. Notably, Beijing and Shanghai gave the green light for the pre-sale of high-end housing projects...
Continue Reading • 12 Feb 2014
UOL collects over 500 cheques for Riverbank @ Fernvale
The Riverbank @ Fernvale condominium (pictured) will open for booking this Friday (14 February) after receiving strong preview interest, said its developer UOL.The showflat in Sengkang has been open since last week to prospective buyers and investors. UOL said that the 555-unit project which...
Continue Reading • 11 Feb 2014
TDSR tweaks welcomed by analysts
Property analysts feel yesterday’s shock move by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to relax the TDSR ruling is a step in the right direction.In a statement, MAS said the changes will exempt some homeowners from the TDSR threshold and apply to those who purchased a property before...
Continue Reading • 11 Feb 2014
No impact from changes to TDSR: report
The relaxation of the TDSR for refinancing of owner-occupied properties is unlikely to have any impact on Singapore’s property market, with flat prices and slower volumes likely to continue, according to a Credit Suisse report.“We maintain our view where primary volumes are expected...
Continue Reading • 11 Feb 2014
Private home prices to rise 2%: Savills
Despite a 3.7 percent growth in the economy in 2013, Singapore's residential property market failed to regain momentum in Q4 last year, according to a Savills report.For the whole year, new private home sales plunged 32.7 percent year-on-year to 14,948 units, while the number of resale and...
Continue Reading • 11 Feb 2014
MAS eases TDSR restrictions
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Monday eased the restrictive Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) on certain property buyers. Below is the full statement from MAS: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has received feedback from borrowers who face challenges refinancing loans for...
Continue Reading • 11 Feb 2014