• Excellent transportation linkages like PIE, ECP (10-15 mins to CBD, Marina Bay Integrated Resort, Suntec City, Raffles City, Changi Airport)
• Easy access to abundant of amenities, i.e. supermarts, wet markets, banks, food centres
• Close proximity to excellent schools like CHIJ (Katong) Primary, Tanjong Katong Primary, Chatsworth Intl Sch, Victoria Jr College, Ngee Ann Pri School, St Patrick School
• Excellent recreational facilities (East Coast Park, Chinese Swimming Club, Parkland Golf Driving range, Marina Bay Driving Rang & Golf Course)

Sale of Floridian, Quartet on Vanda and Parc Seabreeze have begun

DEVELOPERS are gingerly testing the water for residential launches this week. Far East Organization’s listed unit Orchard Parade Holdings and Wing Tai have begun the official launch of their Floridian condo in Bukit Timah, marked by the start of an advertising campaign.

Resort living: The Floridian is inspired by the Miami coast and will be surrounded by water features

Prices start at $1,615 psf. BT understands the average net price is in the range of $1,600 to $1,700 psf after discounts.

The freehold project has 336 units in 11 towers on a site of 230,000 sq ft. The preview for the development began a few months ago, with six units sold at $1,640 to $1,770 psf.

This week’s official launch sees the release of 75 units in Towers 2 and 9. Units range from two-bedders of 840 sq ft to apartments with four bedrooms (plus study) of 2,373 sq ft. Floridian, designed by DP Architects, is inspired by the Miami coast and will be surrounded by water features. Ground-floor units will have the water’s edge outside their living and dining spaces. The project is near Hwa Chong Institution, Methodist Girls’ School, Nanyang Girls’ High School, Raffles Girls’ Primary School and the Canadian International School.

Another freehold project being previewed this week is Quartet on Vanda, a cluster development of four bungalows in Vanda Crescent off Dunearn Road (near Eng Neo Avenue). Each two-storey unit has an attic, a basement and a swimming pool.

Built-up areas range from 4,844 sq ft to 4,919 sq ft. The units are understood to be priced around $6 million each. Quartet on Vanda is being developed by Stanley Quek’s Region Development.

Over in the eastern part of Singapore, Tiong Aik is understood to have begun the preview of Parc Seabreeze in the Marine Parade/Joo Chiat area last week. The average price for the freehold project is understood to be in the $1,600-1,700 psf range.

Source : Business Times - 9 May 2008

Email lushhome@gmail.com for more information or appointment.

Buyers not forthcoming, so developers delay projects that are ready for market

The number of homes that could be launched for sale immediately, but have been held back, has increased to 10,239 in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 44.2 per cent over the 7,099 units in the fourth quarter of last year. This, perhaps, is a reflection of the standoff between developers and buyers.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) property data for the quarter also revealed that there were 2,526 homes launched, but unsold at the end of the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 22.4 per cent over the previous quarter.

CB Richard Ellis director Leonard Tay said simply: ‘As homebuyers were less forthcoming, developers decided to delay their launches.’

Mr Tay highlighted that most of the new projects launched were small projects located outside the prime residential districts. ‘The only project targeted at the mass market, the 405-unit Waterfront Waves at $800 psf (per square foot), met with a certain degree of success as evidenced by the 108 units sold,’ he added.

According to URA, prices of private residential property increased by 3.7 per cent in Q1 2008 compared to 6.8 per cent in the previous quarter.

Mr Tay said that while there were no new luxury projects launched, a few units from existing projects were known to have been sold at above $3,300 psf in Q1 2008, with several units in Marina Collection sold at above $2,600 psf.

‘These, and probably some high-priced transactions in the resale and sub-sale markets, could have contributed to the 3.7 per cent rise to the private residential price index from the previous quarter,’ he added.

Interestingly, the 3.7 per cent increase in the PPI is lower than the earlier forecast of 4.2 per cent.

URA said that the last time the flash estimate of the change in private residential property price index (PPI) was revised downwards by more than 0.5 per cent points was in Q4 2001, when it was pegged downwards by 1.4 percentage points.

Jones Lang LaSalle local director and head of research (South-east Asia) Chua Yang Liang also noted that PPI was down by 3.1 percentage points from the 6.8 per cent growth recorded in Q4 2007, the biggest quarterly drop since Q3 2000, when prices declined by 4.2 percentage points.

Dr Chua said that overall, developers remained conservative on their new launches.

But while there was a significant growth in Outside Central Region (OCR) where a total of 813 units were released in the quarter - 60.5 per cent of total launches in Singapore in Q1 2008 - he noted: ‘Demand in this region was however not as strong.’

Take-up rate for OCR was only 38 per cent whereas Core Central Region (CCR) and Rest of Central Region (RCR) reported healthier take-up rate of 89 per cent and 71 per cent respectively.

And Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han believes buyers are prepared to wait. ‘Property is sentiment-driven, and if buyers believe the economy will slow down, they will be prepared to wait it out on the sidelines,’ he said.

The disappearance of speculators from the market may have also dampened sales, as reflected by the lower number of subsales at just 346 transactions, down from 649 in the previous quarter.

‘Short-term speculators have been weeded out,’ Mr Han said. But, as Mr Han notes, it is now also ‘a smaller market’.

Savills Singapore director (marketing and business development) Ku Swee Yong also believes sub-sales have reached a plateau with current data ‘reflecting true demand’.

According to Savills’ own basket of properties launched and sub-sold in 2007 and 2008, the level of subsales fell from 34 transactions in Q4 2007 to just six transactions in Q1 2008. Subsale prices, however, remained stable, suggesting that panic selling for the time being at least is unlikely.

On whether the increasing backlog of unsold homes could pose a potential over-supply situation in the future, Mr Ku said that he believes not all the potential developments will be built.

URA projects that 56,501 units are expected to be completed between Q2 2008 and 2011, of which 29,685 units are already under construction.

Mr Ku said there are certain ‘control mechanisms’ which could see a lower number of units completed by 2011 with the first being the construction factors. Mr Ku said that a project that has not already begun construction is not likely to be finished within two years, simply because of the costs and shortages within the construction industry currently.

Another control mechanism lies with developers. ‘In the previous downturn, some developers held off projects for 10 years,’ he said.

Source : Business Times - 26 Apr 2008

DEVELOPERS are so gun-shy of the quiet property market that they are continuing to hold off launching units, creating fears of a supply glut and possible price slump.

The pool of unsold, uncompleted private flats that can be launched for immediate sale rose by more than 3,000 units in the first quarter of this year.

This brings the number of such units to 10,239, a three-year high, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority figures released yesterday.

Of the 10,239 unlaunched flats, 4,824 units were in the core central region, which includes districts 9, 10 and 11. These are areas with high-end properties - the very sort facing lacklustre demand now.

Things are even worse in the rest of the central region, where the number of unlaunched units rose by 77 per cent to 2,934 in the first three months.

High-end projects that have not been launched include Marina Bay Suites, Sentosa Quayside and Nassim Park Residences.

CBRE Research expects more suburban launches this quarter as developers focus on mass market projects.

Developers on the whole remain wary of new launches, said Dr Chua Yang Liang, Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of research for South-east Asia.

But there was significant growth in suburban areas, where 813 units - or 60.5 per cent of total launches - were released in the first quarter. Yet demand was weak.

‘This could result in a supply overhang that may encourage a more conservative approach by developers in the next quarter,’ said Dr Chua.

The industry uses launches to sell units to generate cash flow. Big developers have the resources to hold on for years if the market is flat, but smaller firms may be under pressure to sell at lower prices.

Mr Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy, said that if sales volume remains thin, more small developers will likely cut prices of their projects to improve cash flow, but the impact of their action may be lost on the market because of their size.

But big-name developers able to launch units may not do so until the United States sub-prime crisis eases, said Mr Ku Swee Yong from Savills Singapore.

Major developers such as Wheelock Properties, Far East Organization, City Developments and Keppel Land have, in the past, been willing to hold back their launches for several years, he added.

Take Far East. It topped up the lease of its 99-year leasehold property, Orchard Scotts, while it delayed the launch several years ago.

While the quarter was flat, there was naturally some sales activity. Developers sold 762 new homes in the first quarter, but that was one of the smallest numbers in 12 years.

By the end of the first quarter, there were 2,526 flats that had been launched but remained unsold. These could include units launched several months ago.

In the pipeline are another 29,920 units that have yet to obtain a sales licence

The vacancy rate of private homes has also been rising steadily since the second quarter of last year, when it was at a low of 4.9 per cent. It hit 6.3 per cent in the first quarter.

Developers sell about 8,000 homes a year. If their inventory of unsold private homes exceeds 17,000, it could indicate a supply glut, said Mr Mak.

We are not anywhere near that point, he added. But it is now a stand-off. Buyers are waiting for prices to fall while sellers are waiting for buyers to return.

But Mr Ku said that unless developers flood the market, which they are not expected to, the significant increase in stock is not a real concern.

Source : Straits Times - 26 Apr 2008

Buyers may have slight edge in power stakes but analysts expect caution to reign for a while

Official numbers yesterday confirmed what many had already suspected as developers sold only 795 private homes in the first quarter of this year - just about half the 1,469 units that they had sold in the preceding quarter.

But there was also an equally significant pointer for market watchers looking for data on the direction of private home prices.

The islandwide median price of private homes (excluding executive condos) sold by developers dipped 0.8 per cent from $1,064 psf in February to $1,055 psf in March, with the decline coming from the Outside Central Region (where suburban mass-market projects are typically located). The median price there slipped about 3.8 per cent, from $844 psf in February to $812 psf in March.

However, the median price in the Core Central Region jumped from $1,723 psf to $2,450 psf, while that for the Rest of Central Region rose from $1,095 psf to $1,104 psf over the same period. These figures are based on Urban Redevelopment Authority’s monthly survey of developers’ sales.

Property analysts cautioned against reading too much into the monthly price data given that sales volumes are still relatively thin.

Developers sold 301 private homes in March, a significant improvement from 174 units in February but slightly lower than the 320 units for January.

These numbers are lower than the monthly sales of more than 500 units for September to November last year. The dizzy days between June and August last year had seen more than 1,000 units being sold each month.

Chesterton International’s head (research & consultancy) Colin Tan said that, focusing on projects with sales of at least five units in February as well as March, there were 14 developments that recorded month-on-month price declines, outpacing just seven projects with increases.

‘The number of declines versus rises gives some sense of the power play between buyers and sellers. The market is on balance at the moment, with some hint that buyers have a slight edge. We cannot yet say for sure that the market has definitely turned,’ he added.

URA’s data showed that developers launched a total of 642 private homes (excluding ECs) in March, up significantly from 343 units in February, which had a shorter period for home sales because of the Chinese New Year festivities. The March launch figure was the highest in seven months.

Jones Lang LaSalle, looking only at private apartment and condo sales, said the ratio of units sold to units launched has fallen from 101.2 per cent in November last year to 46.4 per cent in March 2008. ‘But the ratio may be stabilising since the March figure was just slightly lower than the 47.5 per cent ratio in February,’ said JLL’s head of research (South-east Asia) Chua Yang Liang.

‘It seems developers’ optimism on the mass market far exceeds buyers’ expectations. Buyers maintain a more cautious outlook of the market as the economy is expected to ease in the next few months, despite the strong advance estimate of 7.2 per cent GDP growth for Q1 2008.’

The highest-priced primary market transaction in March was the $4,612 psf fetched by a unit at Scotts Square along Scotts Road - higher than the $4,140 psf top price achieved in February, for a unit at The Ritz-Carlton Residences in the Cairnhill area.

Looking ahead, CB Richard Ellis executive director Li Hiaw Ho said: ‘The current market sentiment is likely to continue into the second quarter. Activity may pick up in terms of project launches, but buyers’ response will be price sensitive.’

Knight Frank director Nicholas Mak too expects sales volumes to remain thin in the next few months in the face of continuing uncertainty of the US economic outlook and financial market problems. ‘Homebuyers, especially in the mass-market segment, are expected to remain cautious until there is a sustained recovery in the financial markets and economic conditions, which would spill over to the property market. Developers, on the other hand, are likely to launch their projects slowly in the next few months to take advantage of any improvement in market sentiments,’ Mr Mak added.

Source: Business Times - 16 Apr 2008

In this new weekly column, we bring you a sampling of properties up for sale around the island. In the spotlight this week and next: New project launches.

Whitley Villas
freehold
115 Whitley Road
Units: Six semi-detached houses and two cluster bungalows

Prices: $3.5 million for a semi-detached house, $4.5 million for each bungalow

Launch date: Yesterday

Developed by the Fortune Group, this series of two-storey houses, with attics, is located in an established residential area near the Catholic Junior College.

The semi-detached units range in size from 2,895 sq ft to 3,024 sq ft.

Also on offer are two cluster bungalows - one 4,219 sq ft and the other, 4,316 sq ft, in size.

Huit Terraces
999-year leasehold
6-10 Meng Suan Road

Units: Eight terraces

Prices: $2.3 million for corner units and $1.75 million for intermediate ones

Launch date: Yesterday

The main draw of these three-storey terrace houses is a private infinity pool on the second floor of each unit.

The corner houses each have a land area of up to 3,162 sq ft, with a built-up area of up to 5,134 sq ft.

The intermediate units each have a land area of 1,957 sq ft and a built-up area of 3,912 sq ft.

East Coast Residences
freehold
412 Upper East Coast Road

Units: 59

Prices: From $994 per sq ft (psf), averaging $1,125 psf. Monthly maintenance estimated at $225 to $360

Expected launch date: April/May, but previews are ongoing now

This project, near the Lucky Heights area, offers mainly smaller units, starting at 517 sq ft for a one-bedroom unit with a study and going up to 1,238 sq ft for the three-bedroom units.

There are also 10 penthouses, from 1,378 sq ft to 1,679 sq ft in size. Floors are marble in the living and dining areas and timber in the bedrooms. Wardrobes, kitchen cabinets and ovens are provided.

Ventura View
freehold
16 Rambutan Road, off Joo Chiat Place

Units: 24

Prices: $800 to $950 psf

Launch date: This week

Located near several well-known eateries, Ventura View offers a wide range of units, from studios starting at 397 sq ft in size to a four-bedroom penthouse that spans 2,286 sq ft.

The project, by construction firm DJ Builders, comes with a swimming pool, a gym and barbecue areas.

Source : Sunday Times - 6 Apr 2008

Email lushhome@gmail.com for more information.

Location: 100 Kampong Java Road (District 11)
Tenure: Freehold
Expected Completion: Dec 2011
Total Units: 51 units in a single 19 storey residential block

Unit Types:
1+study ~ 1345sqft
2 bedroom ~ 1098-1163sqft
2+study ~ 1249sqft
3 bedroom ~ 1550-1572sqft
Penthouse ~ 2486sqft (3 br) & 2885sqft (4 br)

Preview soon.

Email lushhome@gmail.com for information or special invitation.

Source : Business Times - 27 Mar 2008

Email lushhome@gmail.com for projects information or private previews

URA sees slowest sale of 170 units since start of its data releases in June ‘07.

The number of new homes sold by developers dropped to just 170 units in February - the lowest since the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) began releasing monthly sales data in June 2007.

And CB Richard Ellis executive director Li Hiaw Ho estimates that new home sales could be just 700-800 units for the first quarter of 2008 - even lower than the 894 units sold in the fourth quarter during the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

In an analysis of the data released yesterday, Jones Lang aaLaSalle (JLL) said, however, that prices were comparatively stable.

The firm’s head of research (South-east Asia) Chua Yang Liang said that using the ‘lowest median prices’ category of the URA data, median prices declined 0.7 per cent for units sold in the Core Central Region (CCR) and 5 per cent in the Outside Central Region (OCR) on a month-on-month basis.

For units sold in the Rest of Central Region (RCR), the lowest median price increased 14.2 per cent from $765 psf in January to $874 psf in February.

Colliers International said 107 units were launched in the RCR and 64 were taken up. In the CCR, 31 units were launched and 35 were sold, while in the OCR, 205 were launched and 71 were sold.

Colliers International director of research and consultancy Tay Huey Ying pointed out that although the units launched in the RCR accounted for 60 per cent of all new units launched in February, the number of units sold in the OCR accounted for a much smaller 42 per cent of all purchases.

On the other hand, while the number of new units launched in the CCR accounted for only 9 per cent of all units, sales accounted for a much larger 21 per cent of all units sold.

‘On a deeper analysis, it is estimated that the sales take-up of new units launched in the month of February was strongest for CCR and weakest for OCR,’ Ms Tay said.

She also noted that sales of new units launched in the CCR improved from an estimated 53 per cent in January to 58 per cent in February, while sales in the OCR are estimated to have declined significantly from 49 per cent in January to just 22 per cent in February.

‘This could indicate the resilience of demand for high-end and luxury properties even in the wake of global economic and financial sector uncertainty,’ she said.

Another concern could be the increasing number of new homes ready for sale that have not been launched. At end-December 2007 there were 4,000 such units. But the number has since swelled to more than 6,500 units from 92 unlaunched projects.

Ms Tay said that assuming the US recession is ‘mild and short-lived’, market activity could pick up towards the end of 2008 or early 2009. ‘Based on this scenario, developers may launch a total of some 6,500 to 7,500 units in 2008,’ she said.

However, if the US falls into a prolonged recession, she reckons 5,000 to 5,500 units could be launched, with the mass-market likely to continue to dominate new launches.

With developer sales falling, the secondary market appears to be taking up some of the slack.

According to a DTZ Debenham Tie Leung report, the volume of developer sales of non-landed freehold and leasehold homes fell a sharp 60 and 74 per cent respectively in Q4 2007 quarter-on-quarter. However, secondary market freehold and leasehold transactions fell 47 and 43 per cent respectively for the same period.

Foreigners bolstered sales figures. URA said that they accounted for 31 per cent of all non-landed secondary market transactions in 2007.

Source : Business Times - 18 Mar 2008

Only 185 out of 343 units sold, down from 328 in January, but prices are holding steady.

SALES of new homes slowed almost to a standstill last month, delivering another blow to the already-weak housing market here.

Property developers yesterday said they sold only 185 new units in February, about half of the 343 they launched in the month and well down from the 328 sold in January.

This anaemic performance, coupled with the continuing quietness of the market this month, prompted some experts to predict that new home sales this quarter could hit one of the lowest levels ever seen here.

‘The current weak market sentiment is likely to stay, which means that the total number of new homes sold in the quarter may be 700 to 800 units,’ said Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research.

He said this could be worse than during the Asian financial crisis, when just 894 new units were sold in 1997’s last quarter. Only Sars in 2003 saw fewer new homes sold: 427.

In contrast, developers sold 14,811 new homes in the exuberant boom last year, or an average of 3,700 homes each quarter.

Property consultants say they were not surprised by last month’s feeble numbers, given the Chinese New Year holiday and the snowballing global financial crisis originating from the United States.

But even as some admitted the contraction was ‘worse than expected’, they stressed the silver lining: home prices are still holding steady.

At Hong Leong Holdings’ Aalto in Jalan Kechil, two units were sold for a median price of $2,619 per sq ft (psf), up from the median $2,078 psf fetched by three units in January.

‘There are strong fundamentals to support home prices,’ said Mr Chua Yang Liang, Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of South-east Asia research.

‘En bloc sellers have to look for housing and they are cash-rich. We still believe in the ‘remaking Singapore’ story and with more foreigners coming in, property prices are likely to hold in the coming months.’

But market confidence will ‘remain shaky’ until the extent of the US recession can be measured, said Ms Tay Huey Ying, director of research and consultancy at Colliers International. She expects market activity to remain lacklustre until June.

At some projects, prices have started to dip slightly. At Ritz-Carlton Residences in Cairnhill, only one unit was sold last month at $4,140 psf. None was sold in January, but five were taken up in December for between $5,053 and $5,146 psf.

The best performer last month was the Cosmo condominium in Guillemard Crescent, where 41 out of 45 units were sold, mostly within the first week of its launch, for between $1,048 psf and $1,152 psf.

Source : Straits Times - 18 Mar 2008