ST : New property rules: 'Small impact' on private sector

Sep 14, 2010

New property rules: 'Small impact' on private sector

By Joyce Teo

THE measures introduced to cool the property boom are 'really for the HDB market' and not the private real estate sector, said CapitaLand Residential Singapore chief executive Wong Heang Fine.

Mr Wong pointed out yesterday that people are still unsure about how the steps unveiled last month will affect the market.

'That will settle in a couple of months and then we'll be able to assess what the real impact is,' he said.

'But as you can see from the measures, it doesn't affect first-time buyers and buyers of private housing, except if you're a speculator.'

Mr Wong told the media and analysts that the measures will have some impact but it will be small.

He said the market is strong with good liquidity and low interest rates, and underpinned by good economic growth.

The measures include tighter lending rules for home owners with mortgages who are looking to buy another property.

Mr Wong was speaking during a visit to a Bedok Town Centre site that CapitaLand Residential Singapore and CapitaMalls Asia won in a tender last week with a bid of $788.89 million or $841 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio.

The two CapitaLand units will build a 13-storey mall and residential complex on the land.

The mall - similar in size to Bishan Junction 8 - will take up three floors or a gross floor area of 375,266 sq ft, from level one to basement two.

It will have an estimated net lettable area of 230,000 sq ft to 240,000 sq ft.

This makes it about three times bigger than the neighbouring Bedok Point mall.

Basements one and two will be linked directly to Bedok MRT station and level one to a new bus interchange, which will occupy about 3,000 sq m.

When completed in the first half of 2014, the mall's capital value will be about $3,000 psf of net lettable area.

Knight Frank group managing director Danny Yeo said the Bedok mall should be able to fetch rents of $15 psf to $17 psf, higher than that of a typical suburban mall.

Mr Yeo said the location is promising as there is a lack of malls in the Bedok area and that catchment is not an issue.

The new mall will increase the estimated retail space per capita in Bedok from 2 sq ft to 2.8 sq ft, compared with 5.2 sq ft in Tampines, said CapitaMalls Asia chief executive Lim Beng Chee.

The 500 apartments will sit on top of the mall, taking up a gross floor area of 562,899 sq ft, or 60 per cent of the space.

They will be launched nine months or so after.

Construction of the building will start in the fourth quarter of next year after CapitaLand builds a temporary bus interchange next to the site.

The existing interchange is on the land CapitaLand has bought.

Meanwhile, CapitaLand will push out its designer condo project on the former Farrer Court site by the end of this year, said Mr Wong.

The launch of the upmarket condo, which was designed by well-known architect Zaha Hadid, has been delayed by market conditions.

It was to have been launched for sale in the first half of 2009 and then in the first half of this year.


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The market is strong with good liquidity and low interest rates, and underpinned by good economic growth.