Property consultant Cushman & Wakefield said the freehold units at 6 and 8 Margate Road have a combined land area of 24,000 square feet.

The property is zoned for high rise residential development of up to 24 storeys. It has a plot ratio of 2.1, allowing a maximum gross floor area of 50,404 square feet.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, the combined plot of land can allow the new developer to construct between 55 and 60 units with average sizes of 850 square feet.

It added that small concept apartments have been making headlines last year and sold well due to the affordability factor.

The property is expected to fetch in excess of S$30 million

They were caught by surprise at the rapid market recovery, they say.

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‘Many of us are now caught with a depleting land bank,’ the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) president Simon Cheong said.

‘We believe the long-term solution to a sustainable and stable market is still adequate supply,’ he added.

Credo Real Estate’s deputy managing director Tan Hong Boon summed up the mood: ‘You never know what will happen. While the going is still good, developers will want to launch quickly. This is particularly so for mass market projects.

The Government recently stepped up the supply of development sites after a lull, and believes supply is adequate.

Yesterday, a 3.02ha site at Hougang Avenue 2 was offered to developers. If interest is adequate, a tender will proceed.

Another reserve list site will be offered by May, on top of confirmed list sites, which are tendered without precondition.

The comments by Mr Cheong and Mr Tan at the Redas Chinese New Year lunch at Capella Singapore yesterday came a week after market cooling measures.

The Government imposed a duty sellers must pay if they sell within a year of purchase. It also capped bank loans at 80 per cent of a sale price, from 90 per cent.

Mr Cheong said developers want land supply fast-tracked to satisfy buyer demand to minimise speculation to ease the pressure for more anti-speculative steps.

‘Given the unexpected return of an active property market, developers over the next few months would also be actively bidding for more land,’ he said.

Redas members look forward to more confirmed list sites to replenish land banks, he said. They are looking to Government land, given limited sources of private land. A developer who declined to be named said private land owners were asking for the sky ’so we can’t buy’.

Mr Cheong said developers would rather have this problem than the bleak effects of last year’s meltdown in the banking system. ‘Managing upside is always easier than managing downside.’

The anti-speculative steps were a timely reminder, said Frasers Centrepoint chief executive Lim Ee Seng at the lunch. ‘Exceptional jumps in prices are not good for us.’ Still, he said: ‘No matter how high it gets, it will still obey the law of gravity.’

An anonymous developer said the measures had hurt sentiment a little. ‘If there are 100 buyers, maybe 10 will change their minds. I expect volume to moderate a bit.’

Still, so far the measures appear to have had little or no impact on recent sales. ‘The market is still hot,’ said an industry observer. The 608-unit The Estuary in Yishun, whose preview opened on Wednesday, has sold over 200 units.

The average price for the 99-year leasehold condo is $750 per sq ft, with units facing the Lower Seletar reservoir costing around $800 psf on average.

Separately, City Developments boss Kwek Leng Beng said at a results briefing for CDL yesterday that sentiment would remain strong among genuine buyers, despite the government measures.
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Mr Cheong addressed guest of honour Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, saying developers were disappointed at being left out of the Budget.

But they were happy at the productivity push given the long-term gains. Redas called this ‘a deferred payment hongbao’.

Looming launches include the 151-unit Seascape in Sentosa Cove and Cheung Kong Holdings’ 295-unit The Vision. Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint plan to release Waterfront Gold in Bedok Reservoir soon. Allgreen may launch RV Residences in River Valley and unsold units at Cascadia in Bukit Timah.

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan on Sunday commented on the recent measures to curb speculation in the property market.

He said it is better to take small, preventive steps to cool the property market, than to solve the problem when the bubble really forms.

Mr Mah was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event.

He said he is not against property prices rising, but when danger signs appear, preventive measures have to be taken.

Mr Mah said: “What we are seeing now – a confluence of factors (such as) low interest rates, positive sentiment, volumes actually picking up – I think those are the danger signals.

“So we have to make a judgment as to what is going to happen. It is a choice between not doing anything and just letting the exuberance take over and then having to act when everything is too late.”

First, anyone who sells a property within a year of buying it will have to pay stamp duty of around 3 per cent. That means from today, if you buy a home and sell it at $500,000 within 12 months, you will have to fork out $9,600 in stamp duty. This is on top of the stamp duty you had to pay on the purchase.

Second, lending institutions will now be allowed to lend only up to 80 per cent of the purchase price, not 90 per cent. Buyers will have to come up with at least 20 per cent themselves.

Housing Board loans are not affected by this change in what is called the loan-to-value (LTV) limit.

The sellers’ stamp duty will hit short-term speculators, observers said, while the change in the bank loan limit is likely to weed out marginalised buyers.

The measures will affect only a limited number of buyers but experts feel they could have a psychological effect on the market. There is also concern that tougher steps are in the pipeline.

In its surprise announcement yesterday evening, the Government made clear why it was acting: ‘There is a risk that the market could overheat in the next few months, fuelled by low global interest rates and positive sentiments associated with the economic recovery.’

The joint statement from the National Development and Finance ministries and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said: ‘Any excessive exuberance will make the property market vulnerable to the continuing risks in the global economy.’

If the market were to correct, property buyers and speculators could face capital losses, it added.

The Government also pointed to the sharp spike in sales of new private homes last month and rising prices.

It said that prices rose sharply in the second half of last year and at a faster rate than in previous rebounds. Mortgage lending is also up, hence its ‘calibrated measures now to… pre-empt a property bubble from forming’.

It added that it ‘prefers to take small steps early, rather than be forced to impose more drastic measures after a bubble has formed’.

The Government, which introduced market-cooling measures last September, also said that there is adequate supply and it will inject more sites on to its land sales list this year if needed.

Cushman & Wakefield Singapore managing director Donald Han said: ‘If the Government can come out with something so fast and without warning, it means they can do something faster and more painful if prices continue to rise rapidly. Investors won’t like it.’

Credo Real Estate managing director Karamjit Singh said the measures introduced last September and these new moves ’seem to be focused on preventing problems that aren’t here just yet’.

But he added: ‘The question that may unnerve developers and investors is, what’s next?’

The Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore did not think the sellers’ stamp duty would have an adverse impact on property market activity.

The reduced mortgage cap was also unlikely to have a significant impact on genuine buyers and investors, it said.

Under 10 per cent of home loans cover more than 80 per cent of the property’s valuation, but there are signs that more buyers are getting loans close to the maximum allowed.

OCBC chief executive David Conner told The Straits Times: ‘The banks have been pretty disciplined… because we’ve to put that much more capital against a 90 per cent loan than for an 80 per cent loan, the pricing has been significantly higher… and customers have declined to take that 90 per cent loan.’

PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail did not think the new measures would kill the market, but expected a knee-jerk reaction. ‘It may dampen speculators’ buying interest… in the next few months,’ he said.

joyceteo@sph.com.sg

Additional reporting by Gabriel Chen

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

From Saturday, it will introduce a seller’s stamp duty on all residential properties and lands that are bought after today and sold within one year from the date of purchase, and lower the housing limit to 80 per cent of the total purchase price.

These new steps came less than six months after the Government introduced a set of measures to temper the exuberance in the private residential market last September.

‘While the September 2009 measures helped to cool the property market, there are recent signs that it is starting to heat up again,’ said a joint statement from the Ministry of National Development, Finance Ministry and the Monetary of Singapore.

Demand for private housing units spiked sharply in January, with the the number of units sold by developers tripling that in December, and making it the highest monthly total since last September. Prices have also risen sharply in the second half of 2009, at a faster rate compared to previous rebounds from the troughs of property cycles.

There was no let up in the January price increases. Mortgage lending also soared by around 12 per cent year-on-year through 2009, said the statement.

‘While the current level of speculative activity in the market is still lower than what it was at the height of the property market boom, and overall price levels are below the previous peak, there is a risk that the market could overheat in the next few months, fuelled by low global interest rates and positive sentiments associated with the economic recovery.

‘Any excessive exuberance will make the property market vulnerable to the continuing risks in the global economy. Should growth turn out weaker than expected, property buyers and speculators could face capital losses as the market corrects. Conversely, if the recovery stays on course, interest rates will eventually rise and drive up financing costs with severe implications for those who have overextended themselves.

‘Therefore, the Government has decided to introduce calibrated measures now to temper sentiments and pre-empt a property bubble from forming.

‘We will tighten the supply of credit to the housing market to encourage greater financial prudence among property purchasers. The Government prefers to take small steps early, rather than be forced to impose more drastic measures after a bubble has formed.’

SOURCE: Straits Times

Some Singaporeans are dishing out such orders to the HDB about how and where rental flats ought to be built and their common refrain is, as far from my flat as possible.

While they may be customers of the Housing and Development Board (HDB), do these HDB home owners have the right to make such demands? And at whose expense should their demands be met?

Political observers say residents do not have such rights.

‘Their rights are limited to their own units and do not extend to common property,’ said former Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, a corporate counsel.

MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Indranee Rajah echoes that view. ‘It is HDB’s call,’ she said.

» ‘No right to make demands on HDB’
» Are rental flats that bad?
» Blocked view is residents’ main gripe
» No getting away?
» The lowdown on rental flats
» She treats them to snacks
» I was a rental block kid
» Will rentals flatten value?
» Readers’ comments
But the recent clamour in Tampines and Pasir Ris is the result of the Government getting what it is asking for, said Mr Siew. That is, to make Singaporeans ’stakeholders’ in society.

‘Naturally, they would want to have a say in matters that could potentially impact them and their immediate environment – this is not a bad development,’ he added.

Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Manpower, said ‘it is not an issue of rights, but consultation’.

‘There is a need to inform and consult, and assure residents that potential problems can be managed,’ he said.

Even then, said some, allowing the majority of Singaporeans to feel a sense of ownership cannot come at the expense of the low-income group.

‘They need a roof over their heads,’ said Jurong GRC MP Halimah Yacob.

Ms Indranee concurs. ‘It is wrong to say ‘not in my backyard’. Where are we going to house the poor who cannot afford to buy an HDB flat?’

She also questioned the safety issues raised by home owners, and said this suggests that those living in rental homes are ‘lesser-value human beings’.

‘What is the correlation between rental flat stayers and safety?’ Ms Indranee asked.

Sociologists say there is no evidence that disproportionately more crimes are committed by those living in rental flats.

The prejudices that people may have against the poor are ‘almost always exaggerated’, said Professor Chua Beng Huat of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) department of sociology.
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‘Saying that crime will increase because there are rental flats in the neighbourhood is a prejudice of those who have a vested interest in property values rather than social security,’ he added.

Most fears spring from prejudices towards and stereotypes of the poor rather than actual negative encounters, said Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser of NUS’ department of sociology.

As for whether rental flats lower the prices of property in the surrounding area, most of the housing agents The Sunday Times spoke to said this was not the case.

‘Most people buy a property for access to amenities and parents. Closeness to rental flats has not been a deterrent,’ said Mr Alex Foo, an ERA housing agent.

Popular property districts include Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Bedok and Bukit Merah, and these areas have a large number of rental flats, agents said.

Some one-room-one-hall rental flats have such good locations that even they are being snapped up in the resale market, he said.

There are units going for $200,000, even higher than prices of some three-room flats.

Launched in 2000, the HDB’s Special Housing Assistance Programme allows existing tenants to buy over their rental flats that have been upgraded at a $15,000 discount.

This article is first published in The Straits Times.

The area is currently home to cranes and rows of containers which are waiting to be loaded into the ships at one of the busiest ports in the world.

But by 2027, when the land lease of the port operator PSA Corporation expires, the waterfront space will become home to several skyscrapers such as hotels, residential apartments and commercial buildings.

The Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) said Tanjong Pagar will be transformed into a new waterfront city that will cater to the expansion of Singapore’s business district and will boast amenities like hotels, apartments, and tourism and lifestyle facilities.

“This area is very attractive, it is just at the fringe of the city, the size is comparable to another Marina Bay and it can offer immense opportunities to support future growth,” said Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development.

Due to its proximity to several universities, to Sentosa and to the CBD area, Tanjong Pagar “will give us lots of elements to work on and we’re quite excited about the potential,” said Grace Fu.

The company, whose core business in the development and sale of residential condominium projects, townhouses and single detached homes, reported profits of THB483.89 million from real estate sales of THB4.32 billion. For the year 2008 the company achieved profits of THB315 million from sales of THB3.47 billion.

In a recent interview with The Bangkok Post, Managing Director Veera Srichanachaichok was reported as saying the company will focus on low-rise developments during 2010 and had plans to launch 10 new projects worth more than THB7 billion.

In a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand today, the company attributed its rise in net profits to the transfer of units at its Complete Rajaprarop condominium project. In addition the company recorded a 18.73 per cent decline in its sales and administration expenses, and also benefited from the Thai government´s business tax reduction measures.

SOURCE: Property-Report.com

The MP for Tampines GRC will work with the HDB and residents to debunk the perception that rental flats are old, dirty and bad for image of the estate.

A block of rental flats will soon be built in front of Blk 885, Tampines St 83.

Bernard Fernando, a resident living in one of the units in that block, met HDB officials and MP Sin recently to express his unhappiness over the development.

“They shouldn’t build a towering block of 14 stories right beside our 12-storey block. It doesn’t really make sense. It will cut off the light and cut off the ventilation. If there is a need to build, we don’t object to it, but build a lower block,” said Mr Fernando.

Other residents are equally upset. “Most of the rental flats, normally, problem families will stay (there). Once got problem, anything will happen,” said a resident.

“You will lose everything. You block the air, the wind and everything,” said another.

Mr Sin said it is important to have the rental flats near amenities, and that the government has the final say over where the rental flats are sited. He said efforts will be taken to make things smooth for residents.

He said: “We’ll be working very closely with the contractors, HDB and town councils. We’ll be forming a committee, which also will comprise residents, to (find ways to) mitigate the effects of the noise pollution (during the construction of the flats).

“The new flats will be of the new-generation type, which will blend very nicely within the community itself, such that I don’t think one can visibly pick out these flats as rental flats.”

Some residents are concerned that the value of their homes will go down once the rental flats are up. However, property agents said this is highly unlikely.

Eugene Lim, associate director of ERA Asia Pacific, said: “For example, in Bukit Merah, you see resale flats that are next to rental flats still fetching very high resale prices.”

Some observers said public housing may be one issue debated at the next General Election.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 10 Feb 2010

Singapore’s luxury-home prices won’t match Hong Kong’s because an increase in building ahead of two casino projects in the city-state will see nine times the number of new apartments going up over the next three years than in Hong Kong, according to real estate broker Savills Plc. Singapore’s high-end home prices rose 4 percent in 2009, while Chinese buyers fueled a 45 percent jump in Hong Kong, Savills said.

“Hong Kong has some unique factors which drive the super luxury market, particularly mainland buyers who have been very aggressive,” said Simon Smith, Savills’s Hong Kong-based head of research and consulting.

Luxury property prices in Singapore are about 19 percent below their 2007 peak, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report published Jan. 13. They may rise about 15 percent this year, though still remain 7 percent below their highs by the end of 2010, Goldman said. Hong Kong luxury prices, which have surpassed their mid-2008 peak, will rise 15 percent in the next six months, Colliers International Ltd. forecast in January.

Two resorts are being built in Singapore — the city-state across the Johor Strait from Malaysia — with casinos, hotels, restaurants and attractions that the government hopes will help lure 17 million visitors and triple annual tourism revenue to S$30 billion by 2015.

Genting Singapore Plc unit Resorts World Sentosa opened part of its S$4.5 billion project on southern Sentosa island last month, while Las Vegas Sands Corp. said it may open the Marina Bay Sands, in downtown, in April after construction delays.

To make the economy less dependent on electronics manufacturing, the Singapore government in April 2005 overturned a ban on casinos that had been in place since independence in 1965. Resorts World and Marina Bay are the only two casino developments approved and the government has said there will be only two gaming operators for 10 years.

“The integrated resort is a stale story by now,” Tay Huey Ying, a Singapore-based director of research and consulting at Colliers, said at a property seminar on Jan. 13.

In contrast, the number of casinos in Macau, the world’s biggest casino hub and the only Chinese city where gambling is legal, more than doubled to 33 in 2009 from 2002, when Stanley Ho’s casino monopoly ended. Residential prices will increase as much as 15 percent in the city this year, according to a Savills report on Macau published on Jan. 27.

Sands China Ltd., the Macau unit of Las Vegas Sands, will open most of its stalled resort in Macau by December 2011, adding 300,000 square feet (27,871 square meters) of gaming space to the 849,000 square feet it already has, the company said.

More than 130 apartments around Singapore’s Marina Bay and 900 apartments at Sentosa Cove have yet to be put on sale. City Developments Ltd., Singapore’s second-biggest property developer, and YTL Corp., Malaysia’s biggest builder, are among those preparing to put more homes on the market this year.

About 11,000 condominiums and apartments in the prime districts, or two-fifths of the total supply in Singapore, will come onto the market over the next three years, according to Savills. This compares with 1,260 luxury homes in Hong Kong over the same period.

SOURCE: China Post