Nov 27, 2009
Cool response to smaller HDB flats
Turnaround in property market may have hit demand, say analysts
By Jessica Cheam
ALMOST a year ago, the Government pledged to ramp up the supply of smaller flats to meet demand from downgraders amid Singapore's deepest recession.
But 12 months on, new Housing Board figures obtained by The Straits Times show that the take-up rate of these smaller flats has not been as strong as expected.
Smaller flats are defined as studio apartments, two-room and three-room units.
The weakest sales are in the two-room category. At Senja Green in Bukit Panjang launched under the HDB's build-to-order (BTO) scheme in August last year, the take-up rate of two-room flats was 20 per cent - 19 flats - of the 96 two-room flats offered.
At two other projects, Jade Spring @ Yishun Phase 2 and Dew Spring @ Yishun, the take-up rate for two-room flats was 81 and 53 per cent of flat supply respectively.
HDB's numbers show the application rates for smaller flat types ranged from about 40 per cent to three times the number of flats offered - less than the typical four to five times seen for four- and five-room units.
However, when it came to sales of smaller flats, studio apartments and three-roomers did relatively well compared to two-roomers, with take-up rates of about 96 to 100 per cent.
Analysts say the less-than-hot demand could be due to the turnaround in the property market in the second quarter of this year, which came sooner than expected.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak said people could be holding off on their downgrading plans because HDB resale flat prices have risen.
'The longer home owners hold on to their flats, the higher their capital gains,' he said.
HDB data reveals that the supply of smaller flats has been increasing in recent years - after a lapse of about two decades during which it stopped building this type of flats.
In 2007, HDB offered 1,403 such flats. Last year, it supplied 1,164 units and for this year, it will supply 3,600 such homes.
HDB said it intends to launch 1,400 two- and three-room flats under its BTO programme next month.
The HDB stopped building two- and three-roomers in the 1980s as the growing number of families fuelled demand for bigger flats, but they were re-introduced in 2004 to meet increasing demand.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced last year that HDB would ramp up supply of such smaller flats.
This was meant to offer a steady stream of these flats for lower-income families who needed to downgrade amid the grimmer economic times.
Smaller flat types, not surprisingly, tend to be the cheaper HDB flats. At Dew Spring, for example, two-roomers were priced at $76,000 to $90,000; three-roomers were going for between $120,000 and $146,000; and four-roomers cost between $197,000 and $238,000.
Industry observers such as Chesterton Suntec International research and consultancy director Colin Tan pointed out that two-roomers might be less popular because of their small size of about 485sqft.
Studio apartments are aimed at a specific group - the elderly - and three-roomers appeal to families given their more spacious 700 sq ft or so.
'The market seems to be saying that it doesn't want two-room flats', but they could become more popular as they are built, as they offer downgraders a more immediate housing option, Mr Tan added.
HDB said that the take-up rates of two-roomers are usually lower at the initial stage after launch.
'However, despite the initial weaker demand, the take-up of two-room flats improves during subsequent sales exercises when the flats are nearing completion or are completed,' it said in a statement.
Housewife Koh Gay Hua, 50, considered downgrading from her five-room flat in Bukit Panjang to a smaller flat at the height of the recession.
'But now, with HDB prices still rising, and with some help from my children, I don't have to sell,' she said.
On next year's supply of flats, HDB is 'monitoring response to the smaller flats and will make adjustments to the supply to meet the needs of flat buyers'.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
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NO NEED TO DOWNGRADE
'With HDB prices still rising, and with some help from my children, I don't have to sell.'
Housewife Koh Gay Hua, 50, who had considered downgrading from her five-room flat in Bukit Panjang to a smaller flat at the height of the recession
Friday, November 27, 2009
ST : Feeding and housing a new Singapore
Nov 27, 2009
Feeding and housing a new Singapore
IT IS a crisis that jumps from today's headlines: rising sea levels threaten to engulf Singapore and make life and economic activity intolerable for its five-million strong population.
While the risk seems real if the climate change experts are to be believed, so is the solution going by the architects at Woha.
The team put its collective heads together with boffins from the National University of Singapore and design firms Black Design and Obilia to devise a nifty answer: a ring of 15m-high dykes along the coastline that can double as freshwater reservoirs to supplement inland lakes.
Their blueprint seems to have all the bases covered. The dykes do not cost taxpayers too much because private developers buying coastal plots for projects have to integrate them into their projects.
As a result, the dykes take on many forms and guises - amusement parks, rolling cliffs, fruit valleys, even padi fields. They become tourist attractions in themselves.
Underground MRT tunnels are moved up as water levels rise but they carry more than just trains in this new world. Multi-level viaducts 15m above the ground stack bicycle lanes and running tracks on top of the train tracks.
And energy supplies are secure because the northern part of the island has become a solar farm. All buildings within the 100sqkm zone are fitted with rooftop mirrors directing sunlight onto a 900m 'energy tower' which then converts the sun's rays to electricity.
In the north-west, waves supply power. Underwater turbines harness the energy from seawater moving through a narrowed channel, built in front of lushly landscaped apartment blocks.
Meanwhile, Jurong has become a plantation to feed Singapore. The industrial buildings of old are stacked underneath fields that grow anything, from rice to coconuts. There are even fish farms within the compact 'plantation'.
The East Coast retains its laid-back charm. High-density housing developments stand above dykes integrated with attractions like seafood farms, scuba-diving schools and spas.
With seafront homes so appealing, older Housing Board flats inland fall out of favour. The vacant HDB blocks are converted to high-rise farms. Each block houses just one or two families, with the rest taken up by pigs, cows and chickens on some levels, and vegetables on others.
Farming, in 2050, has become a new-age industry in a country that has kept the tide at bay.
Feeding and housing a new Singapore
IT IS a crisis that jumps from today's headlines: rising sea levels threaten to engulf Singapore and make life and economic activity intolerable for its five-million strong population.
While the risk seems real if the climate change experts are to be believed, so is the solution going by the architects at Woha.
The team put its collective heads together with boffins from the National University of Singapore and design firms Black Design and Obilia to devise a nifty answer: a ring of 15m-high dykes along the coastline that can double as freshwater reservoirs to supplement inland lakes.
Their blueprint seems to have all the bases covered. The dykes do not cost taxpayers too much because private developers buying coastal plots for projects have to integrate them into their projects.
As a result, the dykes take on many forms and guises - amusement parks, rolling cliffs, fruit valleys, even padi fields. They become tourist attractions in themselves.
Underground MRT tunnels are moved up as water levels rise but they carry more than just trains in this new world. Multi-level viaducts 15m above the ground stack bicycle lanes and running tracks on top of the train tracks.
And energy supplies are secure because the northern part of the island has become a solar farm. All buildings within the 100sqkm zone are fitted with rooftop mirrors directing sunlight onto a 900m 'energy tower' which then converts the sun's rays to electricity.
In the north-west, waves supply power. Underwater turbines harness the energy from seawater moving through a narrowed channel, built in front of lushly landscaped apartment blocks.
Meanwhile, Jurong has become a plantation to feed Singapore. The industrial buildings of old are stacked underneath fields that grow anything, from rice to coconuts. There are even fish farms within the compact 'plantation'.
The East Coast retains its laid-back charm. High-density housing developments stand above dykes integrated with attractions like seafood farms, scuba-diving schools and spas.
With seafront homes so appealing, older Housing Board flats inland fall out of favour. The vacant HDB blocks are converted to high-rise farms. Each block houses just one or two families, with the rest taken up by pigs, cows and chickens on some levels, and vegetables on others.
Farming, in 2050, has become a new-age industry in a country that has kept the tide at bay.
ST : 17,300 Punggol units completed so far
Some of the HDB flats under construction in Punggol. Almost 44 per cent of new flats launched in Singapore in the last two years have been in Punggol. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
CLOSE to two-thirds of Punggol flats launched in the last decade have been completed so far, as the Government focuses its efforts on building up Singapore's north-east neighbourhood.
There have been 27,000 Punggol flats launched since 1998, out of which 17,300 have been completed.
The updated figures were announced last night by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, at an exhibition showcasing the winning entries of the Punggol Waterfront Housing Design Competition.
The results were released to the media earlier this month. The winning entry, by international architectural firm Group8asia and local firm Aedas, features sky terraces and a resort-style environment.
This housing project of 1,200 units fronting an upcoming waterway is due to be launched by the middle of next year. It will be part of a cluster of an additional 21,000 flats and private homes.
Punggol has become a focal point again for the Government in recent years, as it is slated to evolve into a vibrant waterfront town.
In the 1990s, efforts to develop the estate were stymied by the Asian financial crisis.
The plan was resurrected in 2007, under the Punggol 21-plus programme.
Since then, despite yet another economic downturn, there has been aggressive efforts to build up Punggol.
Almost 44 per cent of new flats launched in Singapore in the last two years have been in Punggol.
Besides new housing, a 4.2km waterway will also be developed. Its name - My Waterway@Punggol - was announced last night.
Mr Teo said that the canal is still on track for completion at the end of next year.
Next month, workers will start landscaping work at the town park and the areas along the waterway promenade.
'We all look forward to canoeing, kayaking or enjoying other water activities right at the doorsteps of our Punggol residents,' said Mr Teo, who is a Member of Parliament for the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
ST : 27,000 flats launched
Nov 26, 2009
27,000 flats launched
By Tessa Wong
More than two-thirds of Punggol flats launched in the last decade have been completed so far, as the Government focuses its efforts on building up Singapore's north-east neighbourhood. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
NEARLY two-thirds of Punggol flats launched in the last decade have been completed so far, as the Government focuses its efforts on building up Singapore's north-east neighbourhood.
There have been 27,000 Punggol flats launched since 1998, out of which 17,300 have been completed.
The updated figures were announced lon Thursday night by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, at an exhibition showcasing the winning entries of the Punggol Waterfront Housing Design Competition.
The results were released to the media earlier this month. The winning entry, by international architectural firm Group8asia and local firm Aedas, features sky terraces and a resort-style environment.
This housing project of 1,200 units fronting an upcoming waterway is due to be launched by the middle of next year. It will be part of a cluster of an additional 21,000 housing flats and private homes.
Punggol has become a focal point again for the Government in recent years, as it is slated to evolve into a vibrant waterfront town.
27,000 flats launched
By Tessa Wong
More than two-thirds of Punggol flats launched in the last decade have been completed so far, as the Government focuses its efforts on building up Singapore's north-east neighbourhood. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
NEARLY two-thirds of Punggol flats launched in the last decade have been completed so far, as the Government focuses its efforts on building up Singapore's north-east neighbourhood.
There have been 27,000 Punggol flats launched since 1998, out of which 17,300 have been completed.
The updated figures were announced lon Thursday night by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, at an exhibition showcasing the winning entries of the Punggol Waterfront Housing Design Competition.
The results were released to the media earlier this month. The winning entry, by international architectural firm Group8asia and local firm Aedas, features sky terraces and a resort-style environment.
This housing project of 1,200 units fronting an upcoming waterway is due to be launched by the middle of next year. It will be part of a cluster of an additional 21,000 housing flats and private homes.
Punggol has become a focal point again for the Government in recent years, as it is slated to evolve into a vibrant waterfront town.
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