24-Aug-2008

Needy will move to head of queue for HDB rental flats. Stricter rules being drawn up to prevent abuse of rental scheme. Singaporeans in desperate need of a home will, from today, be moved to the front of the queue for HDB rental flats. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced this move yesterday and also gave a peek into new rules being studied to stop abuse of the rental scheme. One of them is that the HDB will scrutinise the assets, including private property, of siblings and children of applicants to ensure they rely first on family, not on rental flats. Another will require flat sellers to deposit part of their sales proceeds into their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts. These likely changes are part of a government move to address the sharp rise in demand for rental flats, with many people joining the queue even when they have other housing options.

24-Aug-2008

HDB resale market going strong. Deals of more than $700K are still being done, with demand fuelled by PRs and new families. While sentiment in the private homes market remains gloomy, the market for Housing Board resale flats offers another story. Deals of $700,000 and above are still being done this year, after 'record deals' of more than $700,000 first surfaced during last year's boom, though these are few and far between. The good news for sellers is that prices continue to rise, pushing up valuations. Volume is seen remaining healthy as home seekers continue to check out resale flats, largely oblivious to the credit crisis consuming the world, market watchers said. Demand for HDB resale flats comes mostly from newly formed families and new permanent residents (PRs), they said.

23-Aug-2008

Hoi Hup led group wins HDB project. It will build 1,200 DBSS flats at Lor1A Toa Payoh. The Housing and Development Board yesterday awarded a Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) site at Lorong 1A Toa Payoh to a Hoi Hup Realty-led consortium that emerged as the top bidder when the tender for the site closed on Tuesday. The winning bid of about $198.82 million works out to about $160 per sq ft per plot ratio - the highest of three bids for the 103-year leasehold plot. The consortium also includes Sunway Developments and Hoi Hup JV Development, whose shareholders include Straits Construction and Hoi Hup Realty.

23-Aug-2008

Retailers hit by soaring rentals. Many are struggling to maintain bottom line, but no relief in sight yet. For a retailer, it is a nightmare scenario - getting stuck in a shop with expensive rent that attracts no shoppers. Yet retail rental levels, especially in prime areas, are still skyrocketing despite the slower economy. That has left industry players wondering if retailers who committed to lease shop spaces at very pricey levels have over-extended themselves. 'The top retail rents of about $80 per sq ft (psf), which were announced recently by Ion Orchard, are a cause for concern.

22-Aug-2008

Cooling property market takes a seat at SLA auction. Only four of eight in-fill sites launched for residential use were eventually sold. The wait-and-see attitude that buyers have adopted in the cooling property market was evident at a Singapore Land Authority (SLA) auction yesterday. Some 200 individuals and small developers packed a room at M Hotel, but there were only a handful of bidders. Only four of eight in-fill sites launched for residential use were eventually sold, for a total of $13.81 million. In-fill sites are pockets of state land in established landed housing estates that have been left untouched by nearby development or were once used for public purposes. All eight sites came with fresh 99-year leases.

20-Aug-2008

Transitional office sites seek niche as market cools. Analysts expect lukewarm response as fresh site is rolled out at Mohd Sultan. Sentiment in the Singapore office investment market is worsening, but Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday rolled out another 15-year leasehold transitional office site as scheduled, this time in the pubbing district of Mohamed Sultan Road. This is the seventh transitional office site URA has launched since July last year. Few bidders are expected for the site and predicts bids of about $80 to $100 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr). The site's location in a mixed neighbourhood may appeal to businesses that don't require a CBD location, and to businesses in the creative line.

16-Aug-2008

Home sales up, but pace slowing. Prices slip in July though sales up for 3rd straight month; high-end hard hit . New home sales rose last month for the third month in a row, but the pace of growth braked sharply and the prices of sold homes slipped. Developers sold 897 new private homes in July, 12 per cent more than in June and the highest number since last August, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday. Close to nine out of every 10 homes sold last month were suburban units that cost $1,000 per sq ft (psf) or less. No homes were sold above $4,000 psf for the second consecutive month. This trend is likely to continue, property consultants said, as persistent caution in the high-end market is causing developers to delay expensive launches.

16-Aug-2008

CBD style office space coming up in suburbs. Soilbuild to provide alternative to increasingly pricey downtown space. Devloper Soilbuild Group Holdings is not overly fussed about current weak residential property market sentiment. While residential property remains Soilbuild's core business, the firm is seizing the moment to beef up its business space development - as downtown office rents and other commercial rents are still relatively high. Soilbuild says it is creating Central Business District-style commercial space in the suburbs as an alternative to the increasingly pricey CBD. The company has been developing properties custom-built for business use since 2005, but it has recently moved to improve its business space portfolio significantly. Soilbuild let a total of 321,500 sq ft of commercial space last year, but this is slated to increase to 3,740,000 sq ft in the near future. By comparison, only 232,500 sq ft of new residential space will be launched in the second half. It has acquired four new projects related to leasing and selling space to companies, to be completed by 2010. This is compared to only three new projects slated for future residential development.

16-Aug-2008

Ghost Month sneaks up on slow market. Home sales volume in July down 35% year-on-year, but does better month-on-month with 12% rise. One year after the onslaught of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, the Singapore property market is still looking weak. And property consultants are expecting sales to slow further, exacerbated by the start of the Chinese Hungry Ghost Month. According to developer sales figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), new home sales fell about 35 per cent in July to 897 units on a year- on-year basis. This is also sharper than the 30 per cent year-on-year fall in June. However, on a month- on-month basis, the July volume increased 12 per cent, largely attributed to the 1,322 new home units launched in the month - the highest since August 2007, when 1,885 units were launched. The number of units launched in July was also 1.4 per cent higher compared to a year ago and about 20 per cent higher compared to the previous month.

15-Aug-2008

Kwek Leng Beng Property slowdown not widespread. Lower prices may be due to panic-selling by a few owners, says CDL chief. City Developments (CDL) chief Kwek Leng Beng is not convinced that the property market slowdown is as widespread as it seems, despite the recent easing in home sales and prices. The executive chairman of Singapore's second-largest developer said the lower prices may just be the result of 'panic-selling' by a few owners who had bought their high-end homes cheap. 'There is a bit of panic in the market, and what has gone up very high in a straight line will also come down,' Mr Kwek said, referring to how property prices have soared in the last few years. But he added that a few lower-priced sales may not be representative of the overall high-end market.

14-Aug-2008

Building projects busting budgets. Shortage of construction workers and materials causing costs to shoot up by as much as 50%. Some building projects in Singapore are facing cost blowouts of 30 to 50 per cent above their original budget as higher construction costs bite hard. The continuing shortage of construction workers and building materials has left project bosses with little choice but to pay upfront for the far higher costs or abandon the project. Anecdotal evidence suggests that building budget blowouts are far bigger than official figures indicate.

13-Aug-2008

Solitary, low bid for Tampines site. At $118 psf ppr it is below expectations, but analyst says site is not plum anyway. Cautious sentiment, soaring construction costs and a not-so-hot site all combined to yield just one bid at a state tender yesterday for a 99-year leasehold condo site at Tampines Ave 1/Ave 10 facing Bedok Reservoir. The sole bid of about $118 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) was below general market expectations which ranged from $150 to $230 psf ppr. The sole bidder at yesterday's tender was Boon Keng Development, a unit of Midview group, which is involved in the construction and property businesses.

13-Aug-2008

SC Global to launch Martin No38. SC GLOBAL will launch Martin No 38 next month at an average price close to $2,000 per square foot. The company said in a statement yesterday that the 91-unit development in Martin Road, near Mohammed Sultan Road and Clarke Quay, will mostly comprise one-plus-one bedroom and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 969-1,130 sq ft. There will be a limited number of larger two-plus-one and three-bedroom apartments, ranging from 1,335-1,485 sq ft.

12-Aug-2008

Growth in hotels sector slows as room lettings fall. The growth of hotels and restaurants here is slowing as room lettings fall, but hotels are still enjoying double-digit growth in room rates, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said yesterday. The hotels and restaurants sector grew 2.1 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter. Comparatively, it grew 2.9 per cent in Q1 2008 and 4.4 per cent in full-year 2007. 'The slower Q2 growth was largely due to the hotels segment of the sector,' MTI said in its quarterly economic survey review. The catering index - a proxy for the performance of restaurants - continued to register strong growth. But room lettings by gazetted hotels - a proxy for the real growth of the hotels segment - have been in decline since Q4 2007. Still, hotels are seeing double-digit growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR) across all segments. In H1 2008, the average room rate (ARR) rose 30 per cent, which led to RevPAR growing 25 per cent. All types of hotels - luxury, upscale, mid-tier and economy - saw strong RevPAR growth. As a result, the industry posted 22 per cent growth in first-half revenue to a record $1.1 billion.

10-Aug-2008

Property market haunted by Hungry Ghost? Maybe not. It has been a week since the Hungry Ghost Festival started. For potential home buyers, this means that they can forget about new launches until the festival wraps up at the end of the month. The good news: There are plenty of homes to choose from in the resale market during this period if you are not superstitious. Sellers have finally become more flexible, even if it is just a tad more, market watchers say. The Hungry Ghost Festival, which falls on the seventh month of the lunar calendar, started on Aug1 this year and will end on Aug30. The property market traditionally goes into a lull during this period, as some consider it inauspicious to make housing commitments, move house or start renovation work at this time. However, the past few years have shown that practicality largely overrides superstition when buyers are presented with attractive options. The property market was active last year during the Hungry Ghost Festival, for instance. This year, the festival appears to be having a more significant impact on the market, since it comes on top of bad news generally. It is largely weak sentiment causing the current quiet, market watchers say.