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Archive for September 27th, 2008

Singapore property still an investment choice

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

DESPITE an uncertain economic outlook, Singapore property is still being viewed as an attractive investment option, according to a survey by the iProperty.com Group, a network of property portals.

Some of the factors contributing to this sentiment include the potential profit from capital appreciation and the potential rental income.

The survey studied the buying habits and trends of 949 people – both Singaporeans and foreigners – who visited iProperty’s Singapore website last month.

With Singapore property prices stabilising in recent months, respondents said they are open to buying a property in the next 12 months – almost 85 per cent said they intend to or may purchase one.

They are most interested in completed condominiums (25 per cent), followed by uncompleted condos (18 per cent), completed landed properties (16 per cent) and resale Housing Board flats (12 per cent).

Among those polled, 42 per cent expect prices to rise, with almost the same number (41 per cent) expecting them to fall.

Given the slowing down of the economy, a majority of respondents (48 per cent) are looking at properties from US$110,000 (S$155,700) to US$500,000. Only 4 per cent are looking for a property in the price range of US$1.1 million to US$3 million.

‘Even though people are keen on investing in property, we can see that the bearish economic outlook has resulted in investors looking at more conservative property choices,’ said iProperty.com Group executive chairman Patrick Grove.

However, some things about buying a property, such as the emphasis on location, remain unchanged. Whether the property is for personal use or for investment, location is the most important factor, said 51 per cent of the respondents.

The other factors are price (36 per cent) and potential capital appreciation (20 per cent).

Source : My Paper – 24 Sep 2008

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SM Goh says challenge for Tianjin Eco-City is to attract investors

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

With initial progress underway at the China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project, Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong says what needs to be done is for policy measures to be either tweaked or put in place.

While saying that Singapore had chosen the right site for the bilateral flagship project, Mr Goh acknowledged that the challenge right now lies in attracting investors.

Mr Goh said his visit to the Tianjin Eco-City site allowed him to visualize what the area would soon look like – a place where residents enjoy a good and leisurely lifestyle, alongside vibrant economic activities such as financial services, research and development, and education.

Mr Goh said he is overwhelmed by the scale of China’s vision, the boldness and the determination of the Chinese in realizing the Tianjin Eco-City dream.

To get the project going, Mr Goh said what is important is to put in place incentives and remove restrictions.

He said, “There are three harmonies we’re talking about, people with people, well we can achieve that. But people with environment, that’s in fact the whole purpose of the eco-city, we can achieve that.

“So the challenge will be people and the economy… we have some ideas on how to attract the activities that we want, financial services, research and development, education, but in the end, can we attract them to come over here, that’s the challenge for us.”

Agreeing, Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu said the eco-city must have more than just a pro-environment living area.

She said, “I think increasingly the challenge is to be economically competitive as well. So I think it’s now time to re-focus on the policy side of it, how to make this place attractive to investors, and to create jobs for the people here.”

Turning the Tianjin Eco-City from dream to reality involves more than just the physical dimensions. It also involves the software of ensuring the city’s long term sustainability and viability, and having endorsement from China’s highest leadership might just be the extra touch that is needed to distinguish the Singapore flagship project from other similar eco-cities in China.

Mr Goh also attended the opening plenary session of the World Economic Forum.

At the session, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao noted that in view of the global financial crisis, China’s greatest contribution to the global economy would be to ensure that it remains economically vibrant.

Turning to the recent milk powder scandal, Mr Wen said that China will revamp the country’s entire food industry so as to ensure greater trust and credibility in Chinese products.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 27 Sep 2008

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Brisbane Devt to release 2nd phase of Illoura

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

Freehold project has 30 detached, semi- detached houses

AUSTRALIAN property company Brisbane Development is all set to release the second phase of Illoura, its strata landed project in the Holland Road area, after the first 15 units in the development were sold at prices exceeding $5 million apiece.

Luxurious: It comprises two parallel developments overlooking a central landscaped recreational area including a 25-m swimming pool and jacuzzis.

Illoura consists of a total of 30 detached and semi-detached houses which are being developed on 87,100 sq ft of freehold land in the prestigious Holland Road precinct.

Designed by award-winning SCDA Architects, each home will have two storeys plus attic and basement, with strata areas measuring from 4,180 sq ft to 4,560 sq ft.

‘Illoura represents our first major project in Singapore and the introduction of an exciting new cluster housing concept,’ said Scott Collins, Brisbane Development’s director.

‘It is pleasing to see the high level of interest demonstrated by Singaporean and foreign investors at this early stage of the project’s release.’

Margaret Thean, executive director of property firm DTZ, which is marketing agent for the development, said that the project’s choice location and quality would attract buyers. The project is also expected to provide good rental yields, she said.

Illoura’s design comprises two parallel developments overlooking a central landscaped recreational area including a 25-metre swimming pool, jacuzzis and large timber decks.

Each of the six detached and 24 semi-detached houses at Illoura is designed around a central interlocking courtyard with an open terrace.

A typical house will have four bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a large gourmet kitchen, open plan living and dining area, an internal private lift accessing all floors in the home, and two private car parks, the developer said.

Source : Business Times – 27 Sep 2007

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CapitaLand defers Australand JV

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

Group puts industrial/logistics tie-up on hold amid refocus on existing core businesses

CapitaLand is putting on hold its tie-up with subsidiary Australand to set up a pan-Asian development platform in the industrial/logistics business. This comes as it refocuses on its existing core businesses.

CapitaLand group president and CEO Liew Mun Leong told BT in a recent interview that given the current turmoil in global financial markets, ‘we would rather focus on our existing portfolio in the Asian market now than to proliferate into new businesses or geographies’. He added: ‘We have refocused back into residential, shopping mall, office space.’

‘Don’t forget, every time you branch out into a new area, you have to talk about human resource, financing, etc,’ said Mr Liew. ‘But of course, Australand is at liberty to do what they want to do. They are free to go into China, Vietnam or India for the industrial business. They are a separate listed company; so we cannot stop them.’

Mr Liew said the tie-up with Australand is ‘not being actively pursued’, but added: ‘It is not dead. If there is an exceptionally good idea, we will still look at it. The arrangement is there.’

Similarly, CapitaLand will not be actively pursuing projects in Russia, which it had earlier targeted as a market for expansion. The Singapore-based property giant had previously said it was exploring the residential and office property markets of affluent Russian cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg, as part of its strategy to invest in fast-growing oil-rich countries.

Mr Liew said: ‘Given this current tumultuous economic environment, we want to focus our strengths in HR and finance in the areas where we are traditionally strong – and we have a firm market such as Asia – instead of starting a new product line like industrial or actively pursuing a market where we are relatively new.’

The tie-up with Australand was announced in February this year, when CapitaLand posted record net earnings of $2.76 billion for the year ended Dec 31, 2007.

The joint venture was to identify suitable development sites for projects, in which CapitaLand would take a 51 per cent stake, with Australand owning the remaining 49 per cent.

CapitaLand is also said to have bid unsuccessfully for the job to set up and manage a real estate investment trust holding a $1.71 billion portfolio of industrial properties divested by JTC Corporation.

In April this year, CapitaLand announced it had aborted its proposed investment in the properties of Russian logistics property developer Eurasia Logistics, citing challenging market conditions.

Source : Business Times – 27 Sep 2008

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Short-term rates leap to about 2%

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

SHORT-TERM interest rates here jumped again yesterday, sending it higher than the US Fed Fund rate of 2 per cent and causing the Monetary Authority of Singapore to inject money into the system.

Underlining the seriousness of the situation, the MAS in a rare statement confirmed that it had intervened in the interbank market.

‘A combination of a dislocation in global money markets and quarter-end funding pressures caused Singapore dollar interest rates to firm this morning. To ease market funding pressures, MAS kept a higher level of liquidity in the banking system through its market operations,’ it said last night.

The 3-month Sibor or Singapore interbank offer rate was fixed by the Association of Banks at 2.23 per cent yesterday, up from 1.76 per cent on Thursday.

‘Rates have since eased to about 2 per cent,’ the MAS said.

MAS said that it was prepared to inject additional liquidity, if required. The 3-month Sibor is now almost double of what it was a month ago.

This could hit home loan borrowers who have been enjoying low interest rates, especially those on interbank pegged rates.

A month ago, on August 26, the 3-month Sibor was 1.18750, up slightly from a low of one per cent on August 7.

‘Banks are tightening credit to each other and to their customers,’ said Matthew Wilson, Morgan Stanley analyst.

Capital is scarce globally and banks are responding by rationing or preserving capital, he said. ‘Refinancing may become more difficult and we risk entering a vicious credit/capital cycle as de-leveraging takes hold,’ said Mr Wilson.

‘Unless risk aversion subsides and/or the Fed cuts the Feds rates, upward pressures on domestic interest rates could persist for awhile,’ said Kit Wei Zheng, Citigroup economist. Despite coordinated action by global central banks to inject liquidity, USD interest rates could stay high near term, pulling up SGD interest rates as well, said Mr Kit.

Ho Woei Chen, United Overseas Bank economist noted that with the exception of the Asian financial crisis, the 3-month Sibor has always been trading at a discount to the Fed funds target rate which is currently at 2.00 per cent. ‘We expect the current phenomenon to be temporary,’ she said.

The spike in wholesale interest rates will hurt home loan borrowers who peg their loans to Sibor. ‘Volatility in interest rates causes mortgage instalments to vary with each re-pricing period,’ said Kevin Lam, UOB head of loans.

‘This could affect customers’ personal cashflow management. For example, if the Sibor rate increases by one per cent, a customer with a $500,000 loan (on 20 years loan tenure) will see his annual instalment increase by $2.928,’ said Mr Lam.

Source : Business Times – 28 Sep 2008

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Interbank rate spikes to 2.23%

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

THE turbulence in global financial markets hit home yesterday when the three-month Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (Sibor) shot up to 2.23 per cent from 1.76 per cent on Thursday.

The Sibor is the level at which banks lend to one another and it has a direct link to how much the rest of us pay for borrowed money.

Although rates have since eased to about 2 per cent, market watchers say the rise was a sure sign of troubled economic times ahead.

‘The spike reflects the spillover from the US funding freeze and also the increase in risk aversion in the local interbank market following the collapse of Lehman Brothers,’ said Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng.

‘But even before the Lehman collapse, domestic short-term interest rates were already facing some upward pressure because liquidity was normalising from previously very loose conditions.’

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a statement last night saying that a ‘combination of a dislocation in global money markets and quarter-end funding pressures caused the Singapore dollar interest rates to firm’.

And to ease market funding pressures, the MAS said it has kept a higher level of liquidity in the banking system through ‘its market operations’.

The MAS also said that it remains in close contact with market participants and is ready to ‘inject additional liquidity as required’.

However, economists say that move may provide only temporary relief.

‘Our view is that while the MAS’ liquidity injection may moderate the increases of interest rates, or even bring them down somewhat, it is quite unlikely that rates will regress to previous levels any time soon,’ said Mr Kit.

Source : Straits Times – 27 Sep 2008

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$645K HDB’s priciest flats go on sale

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

Pinnacle@Duxton units are among 992 released for sale yesterday

FOR sale: the most expensive flats ever released by the HDB.

They are the remaining 111 five-room units at the iconic 50-storey Pinnacle@Duxton in Tanjong Pagar, which is due to be completed this year.

The seven blocks of Pinnacle@Duxton dominates the Tanjong Pagar skylin. Forty-four units cost more than $600, 000. — ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW

Prices start at $545,000 and go up to an eye-popping $645,800 for a 49th storey unit, making them Singapore’s costliest new flats by a long shot. Forty-four cost more than $600,000.

The current record for a new HDB flat is held by a five-room unit at Toa Payoh, which was released for sale in February at $531,500. This excludes the premium flats built by private developers under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS).

Pinnacle@Duxton also has 317 four-room units still unsold, which were made available at prices ranging from $457,000 to $555,000. These units are left over from when the development was launched in 2004. The flats were then priced between $289,200 and $439,400 and met with overwhelming response.

But not all the units were eventually sold, and some were returned to HDB after the buyers withdrew from their planned purchases.

The remaining flats were among 992 new flats released for sale yesterday under HDB’s latest balloting exercise, which also included surplus units from the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) in Ang Mo Kio, Jurong West, Kallang/ Whampoa and Queenstown.

While the prices for the Pinnacle@Duxton flats seem steep, the HDB said they were still lower than the prices of resale flats in the area.

‘Despite their pricing, units at the Pinnacle@Duxton are especially attractive as they are priced below the market prices of similar flats in the resale market,’ a spokesman said.

‘Their high prices are supported by recent open market resale prices of comparable flat types in the vicinity, for example at Cantonment Close, Tanjong Pagar and Jalan Membina. Overall resale prices in these areas have gone up in recent years.’

HDB provided figures showing that prices for five-room flats in Jalan Membina recently hit $670,000 for a unit above the 20th floor. The average price of a five-room flat sold in Jalan Membina and Cantonment Close over the last three months was $624,000.

Still, whether buyers will respond well to these prices remains to be seen.

Housewife Lily Lee, who is in her 30s, said the prices for the Pinnacle@Duxton units were ‘very high’.

‘I wouldn’t pay $600,000 for a five-room flat, I don’t think any HDB flat is worth that value,’ she said.

But Mr Zhao Bing Yao, 29, thought the price seemed ‘reasonable in this market’.

‘My friend just spent about $400,000 for a four-room flat in Clementi that is 30 years old, so I think it’s okay to pay up to $600,000 for a brand-new five-room flat near town,’ said the director of an IT company.

Mr Mohamed Ismail, the chief executive of property agency PropNex, said that HDB ‘has no alternative but to price at market norms’.

‘If they price too low, it will have an impact on resale prices in the area,’ he said, adding that private homes in Tanjong Pagar cost mostly above $1,000 psf.

Still, he noted that the target group of buyers for the Pinnacle@Duxton flats will be ‘very small’, given the $8,000 monthly household income ceiling. Buyers of the five-room flats would be paying almost $3,000 in monthly mortgage instalments, he said.

For ‘young couples and those who are not ready to pay the higher prices for flats in Pinnacle@Duxton’, HDB suggested applying for the other types of flats released in yesterday’s balloting exercise.

These include 285 flats in Jurong West along Corporation Drive, with three-room flats starting at $142,000, four- room flats starting at $213,000, and five- room flats starting at $270,000.

There are also four- and five-room flats in the Kallang/Whampoa area next to Kallang MRT, and 128 studio apartments in Ang Mo Kio that elderly buyers can opt for.

As at 5pm yesterday, 1,271 applications had been received for the 992 flats.

NOT WORTH PAYING FOR

‘I wouldn’t pay $600,000 for a five-room flat, I don’t think any HDB
flat is worth that value.’ - Housewife Lily Lee, who is in her 30s and looking for a new flat

PRICES REASONABLE

‘My friend just spent about $400,000 for a four-room flat in Clementi that is 30 years old, so I think it’s okay to pay up to $600,000 for a brand-new five-room flat near town.’ – Mr Zhao Bing Yao, 29, director of an IT company

On the market

Pinnacle@Duxton, Tanjong Pagar
Units: 428 (317 four-room, 111 five-room)
Prices: $457,000 to $645,800

Ang Mo Kio
Units: 128 studio apartments
Prices: $80,000 to $115,000

Kallang/Whampoa
Units: 103 (39 four-room, 64 five-room)
Prices: $364,000 to $554,000

Queenstown
Units: 48 five-room flats
Prices: $481,000 to $539,000

Jurong West
Units: 285 (91 three-room, 164 four-room, 30 five-room)
Prices: $142,000 to $306,000

Source : Straits Times – 27 Sep 2008

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One-North: No rental restrictions on venue

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

I REFER to Mr Lester Lam’s letter on Tuesday, ‘Concern over use of building’. He had also earlier shared his concerns with us last Wednesday over a ‘church’ being built in One-North. We assure him once again that we appreciate his concerns.

As we had informed Mr Lam earlier, the Civic, Cultural and Retail Complex (CCRC) will comprise a proposed 5,000-seat auditorium and a retail mall, to be operated on a neutral basis, open for rental by the public without any restriction. JTC announced the award of the site in One-North for the development of the CCRC to Rock Productions and CapitaLand in September last year, following a public tender.

Rock Productions has provided a legal undertaking to JTC that the venue will be managed strictly on a commercial basis and will not be converted into a religious facility. IMG Artists, a prominent global performing arts management company, has been appointed by Rock Productions as the third party to market and manage the venue.

Any organisation or group, regardless of affiliation, can rent the venue with the necessary permits obtained from the authorities.

The CCRC is intended to be a lifestyle hub within One-North and the Buona Vista-Queenstown region. It is envisaged that the CCRC will generate a wide range of attractions, food and beverage outlets, entertainment and amenities. This will create a vibrant social and cultural environment for the benefit of everyone in the vicinity and not just a select and exclusive group.

We thank Mr Lam for sharing his concerns with us.

Kelly Wee (Ms)
Director, Communications
JTC Corporation

Source : Straits Times – 27 Sep 2008

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Pinnacle flats on offer

Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 27, 2008

FOR those waiting to snap up a public flat in the iconic 50-storey integrated housing development, the good news: Some 428 four- and five-room units at The Pinnacle@Duxton are among 992 available under the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) latest balloting exercise launched on Friday.

The much-hyped flats in the Cantonment Road area are among some of the most expensive new units with a four-room S1-type priced between $457,000 and $555,000, while the bigger S2 units cost between $545,000 and $646,000.

Even so, the board pointed out, these new flats which come with the HDB discount are priced lower than what resale units in the area have recently sold for. Resale HDB prices have been climbing, showing a4.4-per-cent growth in the second quarter.

The Pinnacle@Duxton is based on an award-winning design, and boasts special features such as skybridges and sky gardens at the 26th and 50th storeys. Apartments will be provided with a varied combination of balconies, bay windows and planter boxes, to suit the preferences of flat buyers.

The balloting exercise also includes surplus units from Selective En bloc Redevelopment Schemes in Ang Mo Kio, Kallang/Whampoa, Queenstown and Jurong West.

There are 128 studio units, priced between $80,000 and $115,000, for sale in Ang Mo Kio, while Jurong West has 285 three-, four- and five-room flats, starting at $142,000. Kallang/Whampoa has 39 four-room and 64 five-room units, while there are 48 five-room flats in Queenstown.

Source : Today – 27 Sep 2008

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