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Archive for January 13th, 2009

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20 bids for former Mee Toh School site

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

The tender for the former Mee Toh School on No.375 Race Course Road has attracted an overwhelming 20 bids.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) put the land up for tender under the “Ideas Tender Scheme” last month. Under the scheme, bidders are allowed to submit alternative bids for innovative uses for the property.

The 20 bids were by 14 bidders and Cambridge Institute Pte Ltd had the highest bid of S$103,998, which was S$34,600 more than the guide rent.

The property, with a gross floor area (GFA) of 2,650 square metres, has been approved for a range of uses – such as food and beverage or a private school – but bidders are allowed to submit other innovative uses under the scheme.

Meanwhile, the SLA launched on Tuesday another former school at No.3 Hu Ching Road for open tender with a guide rental of S$61,200.

It said it has already received 12 enquiries about this property.

Another property – the former Seh Chuan High School at 9-3 Jalan Seh Chuan – has been awarded to Dimensions Commercial School for a S$90,058 bid. Dimensions is planning to use it to expand the hospitality faculty of its campus.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 13 Jan 2009

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Lian Beng reports 9% rise in H1 profit to S$8.8m

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

Singapore-listed construction firm Lian Beng has posted a nine per cent increase in its first half net profit.

Net earnings for the six months ended November rose to S$8.8 million from S$8.1 million a year ago.

This was on the back of a 42 per cent jump in revenues to S$151 million on progress made in various construction projects.

Lian Beng said demand for construction services has softened amid the economic downturn.

But it expects overall construction activity to be supported by both private and public sector projects initiated last year.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 13 Jan 2009

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Property investors expected to spend more this year: report

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

US seen as country providing the most stable and secure real estate

Foreign investors in real estate expect to spend much more in 2009 than they did in 2008, according to an annual report tracking institutional investor interest.

Both foreign lenders and equity investors plan to increase investment globally and in the United States, their favoured international investment target, report members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (Afire).

Lenders expect to boost investment by 54 per cent globally and by 58 per cent in the United States, while equity investors see increases of 40 per cent globally and 73 per cent in the United States.

The United States has more appeal this year, even after last year’s economic tumult, and despite the painful impact of the global credit crunch on commercial real estate, said Jim Fetgatter, Afire’s chief executive.

US commercial property sales are down 73 per cent to US$139.43 billion last year compared with 2007, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics. The shares of US real estate investment trusts, or Reits, are off about 62 per cent from their highs in February 2007, as measured by the benchmark MSCI US Reit Index.

But investors’ appetite for US real estate has only sharpened in the face of these difficulties because the problems are a global phenomenon. The United States remains the world’s largest and to Afire’s members the safest real estate market, Mr Fetgatter said.

‘If you are going to be an international investor you’ll want a significant part of your portfolio in the largest market,’ he added.

By a large margin, the survey’s respondents consider the United States the country providing the most stable and secure real estate investments, with 53 per cent deeming it tops in that category.

Germany and Switzerland, each with 11.3 per cent of the vote, tied for second place while Australia and Canada tied for third place with 4.8 per cent.

In another way, the tough economic conditions are in themselves a draw for investors betting assets might come onto the US market that were not available during the boom years, Mr Fetgatter pointed out.

Washington, DC topped the list of preferred cities, followed by London, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai.

In the US market, Afire’s members replaced last year’s favourite property type, office, with multifamily residential real estate, such as apartment buildings. Office fell to second place, followed by industrial, retail and hotel.

The housing slump, which is making the purchase of a home either more difficult or less attractive to US citizens, caused Afire’s members to favour multifamily over office this year on the theory more people will be renting.

Some 37 per cent of Afire’s members voted the United States the best country for capital appreciation, with Brazil in second place with 16 per cent. Brazil displaced China, which fell into third place. The United Kingdom jumped to fourth place from ninth after asset prices fell there. India fell to fifth place from third.

About half of Washington, DC-based Afire’s 200 members responded to the organisation’s seventeenth annual survey.

Afire members are from 21 countries and hold about US$1 trillion of real estate, including US$371 billion in the United States.

Source : Business Times – 13 Jan 2009

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Pay-interest-only deal for cash-short home owners

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

DBS scheme eases borrowers’ burden for six to 18 months

HOME owners with mortgages at DBS Bank can ease some of their financial burden by opting to pay only the interest on their loans for periods of up to 18 months.

The bank sees the scheme as a way of helping cash-strapped borrowers who are worried about their ability to repay their mortgages amid the deepening economic gloom.

The scheme could potentially benefit ‘tens of thousands’ of borrowers with home loans at DBS.

It can mean an immediate reduction in the monthly amount a borrower must fork out as a key portion of the payment – the loan principal – can be set aside.

Take a 25-year home loan of $500,000 pegged at an interest rate of 3.5 per cent.

A borrower will have to pay $2,504 a month – covering both interest and principal.

But by opting to pay the interest only, his monthly payment drops to $1,439, putting an extra $1,065 into his pocket.

So even if a working couple loses one income, which is a growing threat in the downturn, they can likely keep paying their mortgage – and keep their home.

They can also pay the monthly instalment using Central Provident Fund cash if they are only servicing the interest on the loan.

They can resume monthly payments on the principal portion of their loan when their cash flow situation improves.

The periods for paying interest only can extend from a minimum of six months to 18 months.

‘The last thing we want to do is to foreclose on people’s homes. Come and talk to us early if you have any financial problems,’ said Mr Koh Kar Siong, head of consumer deposits and secured lending at the bank, yesterday.

Homeowner Rose Tan, 40, who has a DBS mortgage on her condominium flat, welcomed the move: ‘This is a friendly gesture from DBS. At least, I know they won’t treat me like a leper if I approach them for help in lowering my housing instalment.’

The flip side is that paying interest-only means you are not paying off any of the loan itself so you will have fallen behind.

DBS is the largest bank here and a key player in the private housing loans market. It is also a big lender to HDB flat-owners through its POSB network.

It has ‘tens of thousands’ of mortgage borrowers.

To get the go-ahead, a borrower must give the bank an update of details such as employment and other financial commitments.

The scheme is applicable to cash-strapped borrowers as well as those in the pink of financial health.

DBS will advise them within a week if their applications to pay interest-only on their loans has been approved.

Mr Koh said the updates are needed to enable DBS to fulfil its fiduciary duty and ensure that borrowers have the means to repay their loans eventually.

Besides offering interest-only instalments, DBS is extending an option to allow home owners to extend the tenure of their loans, which will lower their monthly instalments.

Mr Koh said there has not been any sharp rise in the number of borrowers asking DBS to alter their loan repayment terms but banks are unlikely to be immune to the economic slowdown.

‘About 90 per cent of our home loans are taken up by borrowers who occupy their properties. We want to help them to tide over this difficult period,’ he said.

DBS’ move has stirred hopes among traders and home owners that by acting in such a pro-active manner, there will be fewer foreclosures and this will help the wobbly property market to get back on its feet eventually.

Banks such as MayBank and OCBC Bank told The Straits Times that they preferred to take a case-by-case approach to assist home owners who have taken up loans with them.

Mr Gregory Chan, OCBC’s head of secured lending, said: ‘In the event that our customers’ needs change during the duration of their loans, we are open to reviewing their financial positions and borrowing limits, and advising them accordingly.’

Source : Straits Times – 13 Jan 2009

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Sobering times for New York property market

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

No one knows the giddy highs of New York’s property market – and today’s groaning lows – better than hot dog vendor Pasang Sherpa.

In mid-2008 he paid the city a staggering US$642,000 for two sidewalk spots outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, expecting sole control over the best vending turf in New York.

But when he set up his carts last week he discovered one location blocked for construction and the other unexpectedly invaded by rival hot dog sellers – military veterans who don’t have to pay a cent in rent.

Sherpa’s huge investment suddenly looked less bright.

‘I paid crazy money,’ the Nepalese immigrant, aged 50, said in halting English. ‘The economy is down, there are more vendors and the other (location) is closed. My mind is not working now. I’m going crazy too.’ For everyone, from hot dog men to millionaires, these are days of scary sobering up on the New York real estate market.

Gone is the time when no price seemed too silly, when buyers came begging, and developers made Manhattan’s spiky skyline their plaything.

Luxury apartments now sit unsold, empty storefronts are appearing in prime zones, and the Wall Street collapse has flooded the commercial market with inventory.

‘We have a crisis of hope, because people don’t necessarily see their way out of it,’ said Joseph Harbert, chief operating officer at commercial real estate giant Cushman and Wakefield in the New York region.

Manhattan has traditionally been a real estate fortress, protected from wider trends simply by the facts that so many people want to be here and space on the island is finite.

Not any longer. Cushman this week reported that office leasing in Manhattan is at its lowest level since just after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Available space in Manhattan totals 31.1 million square feet (2.9 million square meters), which is 43 per cent up on the end of 2007 and the highest level since May 2006, Cushman said.

That’s partly because the entire US economy is in recession, but also because September’s Wall Street crisis freed vast amounts of office space almost overnight.

‘With lightening speed we had people go out of business,’ Mr Harbert said.

‘Those things shook our confidence.’ Construction, one of the great New York industries, is also stuttering.

Reports suggest that at least US$4 billion worth of construction projects have been cancelled or delayed, among them a 16-storey tower and basketball arena project in the Atlantic Yards neighbourhood.

‘No one wants to take the risk of putting up a new building,’ Mr Harbert said.

The picture is similar in the residential market.

This was long a seller’s dream, with bonus-wielding Wall Street types helping drive prices to absurd levels for the tiniest properties.

Today, inventory is soaring, banks are loathe to make loans, and the recession has put a huge hole in the annual bonus bonanza. Investment bank Goldman Sachs reports that sales dropped 25 to 30 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to 2007.

Residential construction output is set to drop from 35,000 units a year to 18,000 by 2010, by some estimates.

Battling this financial gale is Paula Del Nunzio, a broker specialising in multi-million dollar sales.

Top of her current list is the Henry T Sloane mansion, a limestone townhouse within spitting distance of Central Park, with 11 fireplaces, an elevator, 15 bedrooms, 17 baths and a marble stair case.

The place went on the market for US$64 million in February last year – well before stockmarket and commodity price collapses sent Wall Street tycoons and wealthy foreigners, such as Russians, reeling.

‘It’s going to be very picky. People will be picking what they want,’ Ms Del Nunzio acknowledged. ‘The price will be under discussion.’ But, like Mr Harbert and other market watchers, she is confident that Manhattan property prices will bounce back.

‘The thing about New York residential real estate is that it’s an island and you can’t create anymore.’ Certainly Mr Sherpa the hot dog vendor prays his mammoth deal will pay off.

‘I was hopeful,’ he said. ‘Now I am very shaken.’

Source : Business Times – 13 Jan 2009

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Construction costs poised on a downtrend

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

Construction costs may have shrunk in Q4 2008 and are likely to be still on the way down, says a top consultancy firm.

Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) says preliminary figures show its tender price index (TPI) may have fallen 6 to 8 per cent quarter on quarter in Q4.

The drop is significant because in the first nine months of 2008, the TPI – which reflects tender price movements in specific sub-sectors of the construction industry – rose 18 per cent year on year.

RLB said there has been a significant drop in tendering activity and recent tenders appear to reflect an easing of prices – ‘largely due to the fall in construction demand as well as declines in material costs, contractors’ preliminaries and tendering margins’.

The firm said that in Q3 2008, the TPI showed little movement and ‘appeared to have peaked’.

In Q4, construction demand is expected to have been $4 billion – way down from an estimated $7.5 billion in Q3.

At end-November 2008, steel reinforcement cost US$740 a tonne, or 40 per cent less than the July 2008 figure of US$1,251.

Copper prices fell even more. At end-November 2008, copper cost US$3,716 a tonne, or 57 per cent down from $8,683 a tonne in April 2008.

But not all costs have eased.

RLB said prices of mechanical and electrical services have not moderated. And wages for construction workers are anticipated to remain stable in the short term. Some costs have continued to rise. For instance, granite aggregate and ordinary Portland cement have gone up 14.9 and 4.2 per cent respectively since April 2008.

At end-Q3 2008, construction costs in Singapore on a per square metre of gross floor area (GFA) basis were still relatively high.

RLB said the cost of constructing a 55-storey (or more) office building was $5,200-$5,950 per sq m of GFA, up from $4,960-$5,660 per sq m in Q1 2008.

A luxury condominium cost $4,500-$6,200 per sq m of GFA in Q3, compared with $4,000-$5,500 per sq m of GFA in Q1.

But RLB said: ‘The current downward trend in building tender prices is anticipated to be more fully felt in the market by the second quarter of 2009.’

Barclays Capital regional economist Leong Wai Ho reckons the fall in costs will help the construction industry ‘extract more profits and value added from each dollar of contracts awarded’.

But he added: ‘The industry faces a no less challenging environment, given that credit is incrementally more scarce and interest expenses are rising.’

He also said that as most raw materials are imported, construction companies’ cost structures are extremely sensitive to the changes in the value of the Singapore dollar.

Citing a survey by DP Information Group, Citigroup said an analysis of the financial results of more than 2,000 construction firms showed 27 per cent of them have short-term debt that exceeds their cash.

Citigroup said there is a significant risk of even healthy companies defaulting on loans if refinancing difficulties persist.

Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng added: ‘The drop in construction costs should provide welcome relief for construction companies’ margins. But the flip side is that it also reflects softening demand conditions in the recession.

‘One can reasonably expect private sector construction demand to soften as the recession unfolds, and public sector demand may have to pick up the slack.’

David Liew, managing director of United Engineers Developments, said falling construction costs are ‘good news’ but the cost savings are limited because construction costs account for only about 20 per cent of total development costs.

Still, he said: ‘Falling construction costs may bring more smiles to the faces of contractors, especially those who committed to projects based on fixed-price contracts during the boom, as they will enjoy improved margins having previously factored in relatively higher material prices.’

Source : Business Times – 13 Jan 2009

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US housing market still offers hidden value

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

But buyers won’t return until they can build wealth through home ownership

If you were searching for pockets of optimism in the US housing market, where would you look? Easy guesses would be to avoid Detroit, Cleveland or any cities with domestic automobile plants or troubled manufacturers.

Then there are the foreclosure gulches of Central and Southern California, which include the Modesto, Stockton, Bakersfield, Riverside and Sacramento areas. Those cities will take a long time to recover. Too many homes there were sold at bubble prices to people with dodgy finances.

Most shortlists of regions likely to experience prolonged housing slumps include Las Vegas, Phoenix and South Florida. You may be able to find some bargains there, although that doesn’t mean you will achieve any gains for years to come – unless demand roars back and supplies are diminished.

Not everyone cares about home-price appreciation, though. People still want to live in safe, stable neighbourhoods where services abound, schools are decent and they are surrounded by educated, caring neighbours. To many people, that’s an intangible and worthwhile investment.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages now average about 5 per cent, after 10 consecutive weeks of decline, Freddie Mac said in a report last week. Where can you be reasonably assured that your housing investment won’t evaporate? Like buying a stock or company, you need to gauge a home’s risks, which many buyers neglect to do.

How many foreclosures are in the neighbourhood you like? How many nearby homes have been repossessed by banks for cheap resale? Are average home prices steady or falling? The bottom line: What are the chances your property will depreciate? Most agents can’t tell you this, so you have to do the work yourself.

Some of the most durable areas have shown lower volatility because they experienced less bubble appreciation, show fewer foreclosures and have residents with higher average income levels. A few of these havens might surprise you. The Connecticut areas of Bridgeport-Stamford, Hartford and New Haven are most resilient, according to HomeSmartreports.com, a San Capistrano, California-based online service that measures ‘collateral risk’, or the chance you will lose money on a property purchase.

Also on the ‘least-risky’ list are Boston, Essex County and Worcester, Massachusetts; Honolulu; Bethesda-Gaithersburg, Maryland; Edison, New Jersey; New York/Nassau-Suffolk county; Albuquerque; Seattle and El Paso.

Neighbourhood stability is almost always anchored by employment, above-average wealth and education. Highly compensated professionals, managers and business owners with college degrees and large incomes tend to stay in their homes.

The absence of speculators and buyers with adjustable-rate mortgages also makes a difference.

Michael Ela, president of HomeSmartreports.com, says California, with seven of the 15 riskiest areas in his survey, ‘was rampant with speculators who got caught in the worst possible vice; many bought at the top of the market with variable-rate loans.’

Although he doesn’t have the data to prove it, Ela says the Northeast has been traditionally risk-averse.

That could explain the strength of the central and southern Connecticut/Boston corporate and higher-education corridor.

The Bethesda area tends to be dominated by federal-government workers. Edison, with a median income of US$80,000 in 2007 – compared with about US$67,000 for the rest of the state – is nestled between Manhattan and northern New Jersey corporate campuses.

Don’t mistake preserving home equity and stability with reaping future home gains. The Northeast and Hawaii are already far above the national home-price average.

You might find better overall value and growth opportunities in lower-priced places such as Austin, Dallas, McAllen and San Antonio in Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Pittsburgh, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington-based organisation that regularly rates 100 areas for the prospects of building home equity.

The centre says you may be able to reap US$60,000 to US$90,000 in home-equity appreciation over the next four years in the above-mentioned cities. It also favours Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse in New York.

Is it time to buy now? Provided you are interested in solid neighbourhoods and don’t care about finding bargains or timing the market. Mortgage rates are certainly favourable.

The recent Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and the lower mortgage rates aren’t everything.

The market may not have hit bottom. A meaningful number of new buyers won’t return until they are confident of building wealth through home ownership.

For that to happen, foreclosures must stop dumping more houses on the market at fire-sale prices. To date, government efforts to shut down this poverty mill have been dismal. A programme run by the Housing and Urban Development Department called ‘Hope for Homeowners’ was empowered by Congress to halt as many as 400,000 foreclosures, but had received only 312 applications through the end of December. Far too many didn’t qualify because of restrictive rules in this voluntary programme.

There’s much Congress can do by mandating new rules on modifying loans, allowing refinancing and bankruptcy protection if it wants to halt foreclosures. It could even let more homeowners stay in their homes as renters.

If Washington is to restore the wealth-building of homeownership, it can’t turn a blind eye to the rules of supply and demand, which still linger – even after a national election.

Source : Business Times – 13 Jan 2009

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Various property tax reliefs available

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

WE REFER to the letter, ‘Property prices down but not property taxes’ (Jan 1), by Mr David Goh, who asked why the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) did not reduce the property tax on residential properties for 2009, when rentals are expected to come down this year.

We would like to clarify that Annual Values (AVs) of properties are not based on projections of market rentals, but on prevailing market rentals for similar properties in the same locality.

Iras reviews the AVs of properties annually. The property tax payable this year is based on AVs of private residential properties at the time they were last re-assessed, which was last year.

Iras is aware that rentals are now on a falling trend and will monitor the situation closely. We will expedite the next AV assessments this year and revise them downwards if rentals drop below the existing AVs.

A number of property tax reliefs are currently available to owners who live in their homes. Their properties are taxed at the concessionary rate of 4 per cent, while let-out properties are taxed at 10 per cent. The owners will also receive an annual rebate of up to $100 or the actual tax payable (whichever is lower) for 2008 and 2009, which was announced in 2007.

For owner-occupied properties with AVs below $10,000, owners will also enjoy the ongoing property tax rebates of $25 to $150 before the annual rebate.

The Government is also looking into various measures to help households cope with the economic downturn.

We thank Mr Goh for his feedback.

Yvonne Yim (Ms)
Principal Corporate Communications Officer
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore

Source : Straits Times – 13 Jan 2009

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More studio flats for the elderly coming up

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

HDB cites good demand for smaller, affordable units as S’poreans age

THE Housing Board will continue building 30-year lease studio apartments reserved for seniors, as such compact and affordable units have proved popular with older Singaporeans.

The HDB will launch ‘a few hundred’ studio apartments each year in different estates, and not just in mature ones, said Mr Yap Chin Beng, HDB’s director of estate administration and property department, at a forum on ageing yesterday.

The forum, organised by the Tsao Foundation, looked at the challenges and possible solutions in housing and other issues facing Asia’s ageing population.

With about one in five flats owned by people aged 55 and older, and given Singapore’s rapidly ageing population, the HDB has introduced various flat types targeted at seniors before.

But response to these flats, such as multi-generation units, which are four- and five-room units with self-contained annexes for the old folk in the family, was poor, Mr Yap said.

He added: ‘We found that many buyers did not want to house their parents. They just wanted a bigger flat.’

He said the HDB built about 400 such units before pulling the plug on them. In contrast, most of the 2,400 or so studios built, or being built, since their launch in 1998, have been snapped up.

Such units can be bought only by Singaporeans aged 55 or older and applicants’ household income must not exceed $8,000 a month. Singles, too, can apply.

Prices of studio apartments launched in Choa Chu Kang last December range from between $58,000 and $66,000 for a 35-sq m unit to $72,000 and $80,000 for a 45-sq m flat.

A larger studio is the size of a two-room flat, said Mr Yap.

These flats come with elderly friendly features such as non-slip flooring and grab bars.

The executive director of HSR property group said studio apartments are popular because of their elderly friendly facilities and their low prices.

Mr Eric Cheng said: ‘Most people we spoke to can afford to buy a $60,000 or $70,000 flat just by using their CPF savings. They don’t have to fork out any cash from their pockets.’

A Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports survey of 44- to 61-years-olds released last Friday shows that housing preferences among older Singaporeans have evolved, with three-quarters of some 3,000 baby-boomers wanting to live on their own in their old age.

The study’s authors, Associate Professor Angelique Chan and Dr Yap Mui Teng, said this suggested that today’s baby-boomers value their independence and privacy. They could also be more wary of the likely tensions of living with their children’s families.

Another key issue among seniors is how much income they have to live on after retirement or in their old age.

To address these concerns, the HDB has also introduced policies to enable the elderly to ‘unlock’ the value of their flats.

For example, in its lease buyback scheme, the HDB will buy back two- or three-room flats from owners who are aged 62 and older, and allow them to live in their flats for 30 more years.

The scheme, which starts this year, involves shortening the flat’s lease to 30 years, with the HDB paying the owners the value of the foregone lease.

Source : Straits Times – 13 Jan 2009

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Berjaya eyes foreign buyers for Ritz-Carlton project

Posted by luxuryasiahome on January 13, 2009

Berjaya Corporation Bhd (BCorp) expects RM2 billion (S$831.68 million) in gross development value (GDV) from its Ritz-Carlton Residences Kuala Lumpur project.

Located in Kuala Lumpur’s ‘Golden Triangle’, the 48-storey twin towers project has 300 luxury apartment residences of 292 standard units and eight penthouses.

It is slated for completion in 2011. The property is expected to cost around RM2,000 to RM2,500 per square feet.

BCorp’s chairman and chief executive officer, Vincent Tan Chee Yioun said the construction cost for the project was estimated at about RM800 million, and the company had already invested almost RM200 million for sub-structure work via internal funding.

‘There is still no bank borrowing for the project and we just need some construction financing,’ he told reporters after an agreement signing ceremony between BCorp’s wholly owned subsidiary, Wangsa Tegap Sdn Bhd and Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC for the development, here yesterday.

The signing was witnessed by Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Chuan.

Wangsa Tegap, is also the owner of the property, formerly know as Berjaya Central Park.

‘We wanted to originally launch it as the Berjaya Central Park.

But having visited similar development around the world, we felt it would be far better managed by a world renowned organisation,’ Mr Tan said.

Show units are scheduled to be launched in August or September this year, and Mr Tan is confident that the project will attract 150 buyers despite the current economic slowdown.

‘We are confident of securing the 150 buyers because we have Ritz-Carlton managing it.

‘We are also looking for high-end, wealthy customers and we expect more than half from overseas,’ he explained.

On the Malaysian property outlook, he said there may be a slight slowdown but the market was generally fine with every project committed still under construction.

Source : Business Times – 13 Jan 2009

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