Vacancy rate is a fundamental statistic
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) issues data every quarter on the demand and supply of the residential property market.There were 16 extensions or annexes filled with many ratios, charts and other statistics in the Q2 2009 release. Multiplying this with the past releases, the total number...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Think simple, live big
Sometimes the best solutions to the most pressing and most complicated problems are just very simple and straightforward ideas. For instance, one of the best ways to save your well-earned dollar is not see it. That’s a simple notion to understand. If you get the overpowering urge to buy...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Property sales tax structure remains
The government has settled not to alter the existing income tax structure with regard to persons who put their properties for sale. This is an action accepted by industry players, which include the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore.In a proposal provided for public discussion, the...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
CCT: Anticipate, accelerate, accentuate
Singapore’s Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) seemed like a very vulnerable sector during the worst phase of the credit crisis, yet it weathered the storm and held fast.At the peak of the credit crisis, some sectors faltered miserably. However, most REITs in Singapore managed to roll...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Seven indications of property fad
Far East Organisation, Singapore’s biggest private property developer, launched Centro Residences in Ang Mo Kio. Prices work out at $1,100 per square foot (psf). Deals done in July were at $1,117 psf to $1,228 psf.Property experts say such prices are more normal among prime projects or...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
No over-exuberance in Singapore property market? Look again, Mr. Kwek
An article dated 14 August 2009 entitled “Property scene not too frothy: CDL” caught my attention and I thought the writer might have been just kidding.City Developments (CDL) Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said in that particular article there was no over-enthusiasm in the property market...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
More units scheduled for completion
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that property supply pose no threat. He believes the supply pipeline have plenty of homes available for Singaporeans, indicating that over 40,000 units are scheduled to come within the next three or four years onto the market.The recent market data...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Legal questions arise after en bloc appeal
The Joo Chiat resident, who opposed the collective selling of his apartment for claims of procedural irregularities and unfairness of distribution manner, had taken the case to the High Court.At a hearing yesterday, Justice Andrew Ang, the presiding judge, questioned the legality of selling such...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Homes become more affordable as income rates rise
Prices of private homes may be rising yet again but newly gathered data imply home buyers who are in to the current home-buying trend are not necessarily living beyond their means and overstretching their budgets.Homebuyers now consider condominium units more reasonably priced vis-à-vis...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Foreign home buyers in Singapore increase
More and more foreign buyers are engaging in the property market of Singapore. Their number has dramatically shot up during the second quarter, but according to some property experts, they are not quite in the league of the high-spending ones seen during the boom of 2007.At that time,...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
7 kinds of purchases in the market
There are seven kinds of market buyers: speculators, specu-vestors, investors, investor-occupiers, owner-occupiers, foreign buyers and property agents. Speculators are the type of buyers who purchase property with a vision to flip it to immediately generate profit. They hold no plan on living in...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
1 cluster house and 1 semi-D equivalent to 1 flat and $700k loss
In 1995, a general manager with a manufacturing company in his early 40s named Mr Zachary Tsai (not his real name) paid off about $1.3 million for a second house. Earning a five-figure wage, he owned a semi-detached house in Upper East Coast, where he lived with his wife and four kids.However,...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Singaporean developers rev up production for sales
Keppel Corporation and Keppel Land will release their latest batch of 30 housing units at the Reflections in the Keppel Land condo today. The units have an average price of $1,950 per square fool (psf), assuming the buyers use the Deferred Payment System (DPS).Buyers who choose to pay through the...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Sunway to develop a project in Singapore
A unit of Sunway Holdings Bhd, Sunway Developments Pte Ltd, has signed a joint-venture agreement with Hoi Hup Realty Pte Ltd to establish Hoi Hup Sunway Property Pte Ltd.The proposed joint venture will embark on a residential property development project on a freehold land parcel in...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
New condo with MRT link
A new condominium with an all-weather walkway is planned to be built near the MRT station.In Beach Road, the newly built Concourse Skyline can be the Singapore’s first housing project that has a bridge connected to a mass transit system. Considered as a new trend, other projects will surely...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
IRs upbeat about outlook for 2010
Three years in the making, the two integrated resorts in Singapore will finally open soon and operators remain positive about the new attractions.Resorts World Sentosa, due to have its soft opening early in 2010, is expected to attract more than 13 million visitors in its first year.The resort...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
The real score on global economic recovery
Recently, global stock prices reached their peak for this year as they were popped up by optimism about prospects for a worldwide economic resurgence. However, this week saw stock prices dropping back to a three-month low as fresh concerns cropped up regarding the sustainability of the...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Sales of property fall dramatically following market cooling measures
The cooling measures aimed at avoiding the formation of a real estate bubble in Singapore have had a dramatic impact on the property market, with property sales dropping 26 percent in November to their lowest level since January.Figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority show that there were...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
Home loans go super cheap
Super cheap home loans have just been unveiled by two foreign banks in Singapore in an attempt to have a larger share in the booming mortgage market.Market observers, however, say that it is still too early to predict whether an all-out mortgage rates war is looming, although the recent rates are...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009
HK shop sold for $127,000 psf
A well-known entertainment company in Hong Kong has paid $108 million for a shop located in one of the busiest districts, according to a report.The sale of the 1,212 square feet shop comes as the HK government tried to contain increasing property costs due to fears that they are becoming...
Continue Reading • 24 Dec 2009