Oct 27, 2010
Punggol, Seletar sites up for sale
By Esther Teo
TWO residential sites in the north-east region were launched by the Government yesterday, potentially yielding another 1,080 homes.
The first is a 2.7ha plot at the junction of Punggol Central and Punggol Walk, while the second comprises a 1.7ha site in Seletar Road, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced.
The Seletar site - located next to Far East's The Greenwich project and within the Seletar Hills residential estate - has a maximum permissible gross floor area (GFA) of about 263,059 sq ft and is estimated to yield 270 housing units.
The Punggol land parcel, near Punggol MRT Station and with a maximum permissible GFA of 888,904 sq ft, can potentially host about 810 units.
And it includes the historically and architecturally significant Matilda House, which is to be conserved and restored as part of the residential development.
Built in 1902, the house has an additional GFA of about 4,500 sq ft and is an example of an early-style tropical bungalow. Its distinctive features include entrances on both sides of the main building, raised floors, timber lattice and louvred windows, URA said.
The only remaining historic bungalow in Punggol Town, it can be restored as a clubhouse or for private residential use within the development.
Most experts anticipate robust interest for both plots, with small- to mid-sized developers being particularly keen on the smaller Seletar site, given its 'not-excessive' land cost.
OrangeTee head of research and consultancy Tan Kok Keong expects up to six bids for both sites each. And, while Punggol is likely to attract upgraders from the Sengkang and Punggol, Seletar may well draw in investors banking on the upcoming Seletar Aerospace Park.
'Bearing in mind that the Government will be releasing new land sites for the first half of next year soon, developers will consider that before placing their bids,' he added.
Mr Nicholas Mak, executive director of SLP International Property Consultants, predicts up to nine bids for the Punggol site of between $380 and $420 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), while Seletar might fetch between $320 and $360 psf ppr from up to seven interested parties.
Cushman and Wakefield's senior manager of Asia-Pacific research, Mr Ong Kah Seng, however, expects 'modest interest' of about three bids for the Punggol site.
'There may be increased competition from another site in Punggol Walk/Punggol Central which will be launched in November and is estimated to provide about 685 units,' he said.
Both Punggol and Seletar sites - whose tenders close on Dec 7 and Dec 14 respectively - form part of the government land sales programme's confirmed list for the second half of the year.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
ST : 1,322 flats in Sengkang, Bukit Panjang for sale
Oct 27, 2010
1,322 flats in Sengkang, Bukit Panjang for sale
By Daryl Chin
MORE than 1,300 new flats were launched for sale yesterday as the Housing Board stepped up measures to help first-time buyers.
Senja Parc View in Bukit Panjang will offer 577 units under standard contracts, while 745 units at Anchorvale Horizon in Sengkang will be sold under premium contracts. Although the 1,322 build-to-order (BTO) flats will not be ready for at least a few years, the increase in supply should ease pressure on first-time buyers as the property market soars.
Senja Parc View flats cost $86,000 to $119,000 for a two-room unit, and $242,000 to $312,000 for a four-room unit. Premium units at Anchorvale Horizon cost from $75,000 to $104,000 for a studio apartment, and $344,000 to $426,000 for a five-room flat.
Both projects feature the Optional Component Scheme where buyers can pay extra for finishes such as internal doors or flooring. Apart from the studio apartments, the other 95 per cent of units will be set aside for first-time buyers.
HDB said such buyers use an estimated 17 per cent to 27 per cent of their monthly household income to meet their monthly loan repayments. It advised prudence when purchasing homes. The income ceiling is $2,000 a month for a two-room unit, $3,000 for a three-room unit, and $8,000 for studio apartments, four-room and five-room units.
ERA Asia-Pacific associate director Eugene Lim said the Sengkang project looks set to buck the trend of dipping oversubscription rates.
The two most recent BTO exercises, in Yishun and Woodlands, saw rates of 2.4 and 2.2 respectively. These are much lower than that for a BTO project launched in Punggol in April, which saw application numbers reach up to six times the 1,429 units on offer. The drop may be due in part to the projects' locations.
Mr Lim said: 'Anchorvale looks more attractive because it's within walking distance of a number of amenities such as an LRT station.'
Mr Adam Tan, corporate communications manager for PropNex, said he foresees an oversubscription rate of at least four times for the four- and five-room flats in Sengkang.
'First-timers looking to start a family will like Anchorvale Horizon because it's a fairly developed estate. In addition, cash-over-valuation (COV) figures haven't come down enough for first-timers to jump over to the resale market, because they do not have that amount of disposable cash.'
He added that median COV prices for resale flats in Sengkang are about $32,000 for a four-room unit and $35,000 for a five-room unit.
Applications for the new flats will close on Nov 8. They bring the number of new flats for sale under the BTO scheme and Sale of Balance Flats exercise to 15,527 since the start of this year.
HDB will launch 2,200 new flats in Yishun and Punggol next month and in December respectively. It also announced plans to sell about 5,000 flats in Bukit Panjang, Jurong West, Sengkang and Yishun in the first quarter of next year.
1,322 flats in Sengkang, Bukit Panjang for sale
By Daryl Chin
MORE than 1,300 new flats were launched for sale yesterday as the Housing Board stepped up measures to help first-time buyers.
Senja Parc View in Bukit Panjang will offer 577 units under standard contracts, while 745 units at Anchorvale Horizon in Sengkang will be sold under premium contracts. Although the 1,322 build-to-order (BTO) flats will not be ready for at least a few years, the increase in supply should ease pressure on first-time buyers as the property market soars.
Senja Parc View flats cost $86,000 to $119,000 for a two-room unit, and $242,000 to $312,000 for a four-room unit. Premium units at Anchorvale Horizon cost from $75,000 to $104,000 for a studio apartment, and $344,000 to $426,000 for a five-room flat.
Both projects feature the Optional Component Scheme where buyers can pay extra for finishes such as internal doors or flooring. Apart from the studio apartments, the other 95 per cent of units will be set aside for first-time buyers.
HDB said such buyers use an estimated 17 per cent to 27 per cent of their monthly household income to meet their monthly loan repayments. It advised prudence when purchasing homes. The income ceiling is $2,000 a month for a two-room unit, $3,000 for a three-room unit, and $8,000 for studio apartments, four-room and five-room units.
ERA Asia-Pacific associate director Eugene Lim said the Sengkang project looks set to buck the trend of dipping oversubscription rates.
The two most recent BTO exercises, in Yishun and Woodlands, saw rates of 2.4 and 2.2 respectively. These are much lower than that for a BTO project launched in Punggol in April, which saw application numbers reach up to six times the 1,429 units on offer. The drop may be due in part to the projects' locations.
Mr Lim said: 'Anchorvale looks more attractive because it's within walking distance of a number of amenities such as an LRT station.'
Mr Adam Tan, corporate communications manager for PropNex, said he foresees an oversubscription rate of at least four times for the four- and five-room flats in Sengkang.
'First-timers looking to start a family will like Anchorvale Horizon because it's a fairly developed estate. In addition, cash-over-valuation (COV) figures haven't come down enough for first-timers to jump over to the resale market, because they do not have that amount of disposable cash.'
He added that median COV prices for resale flats in Sengkang are about $32,000 for a four-room unit and $35,000 for a five-room unit.
Applications for the new flats will close on Nov 8. They bring the number of new flats for sale under the BTO scheme and Sale of Balance Flats exercise to 15,527 since the start of this year.
HDB will launch 2,200 new flats in Yishun and Punggol next month and in December respectively. It also announced plans to sell about 5,000 flats in Bukit Panjang, Jurong West, Sengkang and Yishun in the first quarter of next year.
ST : What's gone Up won't come Down
Oct 26, 2010
EAST ASIA'S PROPERTY BOOM
What's gone Up won't come Down
Housing prices in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are on a seemingly relentless climb despite government efforts to step on the brakes. Here's a look at what's fuelling this rise and the outlook ahead.
Report by Grace Ng in Beijing, Diego Laje in Hong Kong & Lee Seok Hwai in Taipei
In many Chinese cities such as Shanghai (above) as well as in Hong Kong and Taipei, home prices have been rising on the back of urbanisation, rising incomes and funds deserting slower-growing Western economies. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MR ZHANG, a heavyset man in his 40s, has just taken his Beijing apartment off the rental market and is looking for a buyer.
The factory owner has four apartments in southern China, and is considering selling two of them before a widely expected property tax is introduced by the authorities to cool the red-hot property market.
'I want to retire early and maybe go settle in Macau,' he laughs, declining to give his full name. With an expensive gold Swiss watch flashing on his wrist with every gesture he makes, he adds: 'I do not want to pay millions in tax.'
In Hong Kong, where a steady stream of mainlanders is pushing up the housing market, Mr John Harper, a Canadian who has lived on the island for 13 years, faces a different problem while house-hunting in Wanchai. Does he buy now, or wait for the next crash, he wonders.
But the next crash does not seem to be around the corner, despite recent measures to put a brake on prices. In the first eight months this year, property prices rose by 10 per cent, according to official figures. From 2008 to last year, prices rose 12 per cent.
And the longer Mr Harper delays, the more likely the downpayment will grow. 'It's hard enough to come up with 30 per cent of a property for HK$6 million (S$1 million),' he said. 'But the more I delay my purchase, the more will be the downpayment required because any mortgage over HK$12 million requires 40 per cent up front.'
Welcome to East Asia's property boom. Fuelled by urbanisation, rising incomes and funds deserting slower-growing Western economies, home prices have been rising dramatically in Beijing and numerous other Chinese cities, Hong Kong and Taipei.
Beijing real estate prices had their biggest jump on record in April.
Governments are beginning to worry.
Two years ago, China pumped in four trillion yuan (S$780 billion) to pump up its economy during the global downturn and, last year, it loosened credit and home purchase rules. Now, it considers skyrocketing property prices the biggest headache of the people. Since April, policymakers have tightened downpayment requirements, suspended loans for third-home purchases and are laying plans for a nationwide property tax. Last week, the government raised bank lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, is moving to cut speculation and expand supply.
And Taiwan plans to start building apartments for young adults and students from next year. Social housing currently accounts for a mere 0.08 per cent of dwellings in Taiwan, compared with 30 per cent in Hong Kong.
But it appears that every move by governments to rein things in is blunted by the ingenuity of peoples crazed by the market and unshaken in their belief that 'you cannot go wrong with property'.
In China, for instance, some people have resorted to dubious divorces and 'house-sitters' with fake ownership certificates to work around the 'one-home-per-family' policy. Under this rule - implemented in 12 cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - after their first property each married couple would have to fork out at least a 50 per cent downpayment and face tougher conditions for bank loans for additional house purchases.
Or take the case of Madam Chang, a 54-year-old Taipei resident, who pooled NT$10 million (S$424,000) with her friends a few years ago to speculate in the market. According to Liberty Times, the bunch of friends quickly resold their first apartment for a profit. Since then, Madam Chang has made NT$20 million and is sitting on 27 apartments.
The only thing curbing her appetite is that fresh credit is increasingly difficult to get.
Professor Chang Chin-oh, an expert on land economics at Taipei's National Cheng Chi University, attributes the property fever to the loose monetary policy of low interest rates and higher currency circulation that Taiwan adopted during the recession.
The easing of political tension and closer economic engagement with the mainland over the past two years also boosted investors' confidence.
As a result, he said, more people are buying property for investment and selling it off quickly. 'Very few people are buying for their own use,' he said.
Likewise, Hong Kong's property boom is in some part the result of the local dollar's peg to the greenback. Cheap credit in the US is reflected locally as well, fuelling demand for property.
Will property prices cool? The signs are not good.
Beijing's moves to curb the hike in home prices had some effect between May and July but, by last month, the speculators had returned with a vengeance. And with real estate accounting for nearly 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which planner wants to shut down a growth engine?
Likewise, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been trying to prevent a local version of the sub-prime mortgage crisis by tightening lending conditions for banks, according to Mr Ricky Poon, an executive director at Colliers International.
Among the moves, as Mr Harper noted, is that any mortgage above S$2 million requires a 40 per cent downpayment. But even that is like spitting into a stiff wind.
There is no evidence that the demand from the mainland for Hong Kong homes will ease. Besides, it is tough to control property prices when the broader economies themselves are so buoyant.
Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund forecast that China's GDP would expand 10.5 per cent this year. A high savings rate and that too few investment channels are available to investors are also contributing to Chinese parking their money in real estate. In the five years to 2007, China's savings rate jumped nearly 10 percentage points to 38 per cent of GDP.
What is more, over a 20-, or even 10-year horizon, it is difficult to find a major city in much of developing Asia - from Beijing to Bangalore - where property prices have slid.
Such is the appetite for a private shelter, never mind if it is only the size of a shoe box.
And even if you provided government-subsidised rental apartments, as Taipei is planning to do, the young would still be loath to trade that for a life away from the pulsing downtown.
Ms Emily Wu, a Taiwanese video technician in her 20s, pays NT$9,000 a month for a room just one metro rail stop away from the Xinyi business and shopping district. She says she would rather live there than in a spacious apartment in the suburbs. 'I want to be near where all the action is,' says Ms Wu.
Difficult as it is, governments need to watch property prices - and intervene where necessary - for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a healthy property market undergirds the broader economy by boosting the values of stocks and commodities. Also, most people in Asia tend to keep a good part of their nest eggs in property.
While a steady increase in real estate prices is welcome, bubbles are feared because a housing market collapse will destroy consumer confidence and shake every industry from salt to software.
Excessive run-ups in prices that put home ownership out of reach also tend to fuel frustration and even social unrest.
Earlier this month, as Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang outlined measures to cool the property market, an angry crowd of some 200 people protested outside the Legislative Council building, demanding that the government do more to put affordable housing within their reach.
'With property prices soaring to new heights, the poorer sections of society have no hope of buying their own apartments,' said Ms Penny Keung, one of the protesters.
Mr Jack Liu, 28, has a similar complaint. He earns 10,000 yuan a month in Beijing's flourishing information technology sector but fears he will not get to buy his dream house: 'I'm working so hard... but the prices are rising so much faster than my income.'
graceng@sph.com.sg
contact@diegolaje.com
seokhwai@sph.com.sg
Additional reporting by Lina Miao
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OUT OF REACH
'With property prices soaring to new heights, the poorer sections of society have no hope of buying their own apartments.'
Hong Kong resident Penny Keung
EAST ASIA'S PROPERTY BOOM
What's gone Up won't come Down
Housing prices in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are on a seemingly relentless climb despite government efforts to step on the brakes. Here's a look at what's fuelling this rise and the outlook ahead.
Report by Grace Ng in Beijing, Diego Laje in Hong Kong & Lee Seok Hwai in Taipei
In many Chinese cities such as Shanghai (above) as well as in Hong Kong and Taipei, home prices have been rising on the back of urbanisation, rising incomes and funds deserting slower-growing Western economies. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MR ZHANG, a heavyset man in his 40s, has just taken his Beijing apartment off the rental market and is looking for a buyer.
The factory owner has four apartments in southern China, and is considering selling two of them before a widely expected property tax is introduced by the authorities to cool the red-hot property market.
'I want to retire early and maybe go settle in Macau,' he laughs, declining to give his full name. With an expensive gold Swiss watch flashing on his wrist with every gesture he makes, he adds: 'I do not want to pay millions in tax.'
In Hong Kong, where a steady stream of mainlanders is pushing up the housing market, Mr John Harper, a Canadian who has lived on the island for 13 years, faces a different problem while house-hunting in Wanchai. Does he buy now, or wait for the next crash, he wonders.
But the next crash does not seem to be around the corner, despite recent measures to put a brake on prices. In the first eight months this year, property prices rose by 10 per cent, according to official figures. From 2008 to last year, prices rose 12 per cent.
And the longer Mr Harper delays, the more likely the downpayment will grow. 'It's hard enough to come up with 30 per cent of a property for HK$6 million (S$1 million),' he said. 'But the more I delay my purchase, the more will be the downpayment required because any mortgage over HK$12 million requires 40 per cent up front.'
Welcome to East Asia's property boom. Fuelled by urbanisation, rising incomes and funds deserting slower-growing Western economies, home prices have been rising dramatically in Beijing and numerous other Chinese cities, Hong Kong and Taipei.
Beijing real estate prices had their biggest jump on record in April.
Governments are beginning to worry.
Two years ago, China pumped in four trillion yuan (S$780 billion) to pump up its economy during the global downturn and, last year, it loosened credit and home purchase rules. Now, it considers skyrocketing property prices the biggest headache of the people. Since April, policymakers have tightened downpayment requirements, suspended loans for third-home purchases and are laying plans for a nationwide property tax. Last week, the government raised bank lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, is moving to cut speculation and expand supply.
And Taiwan plans to start building apartments for young adults and students from next year. Social housing currently accounts for a mere 0.08 per cent of dwellings in Taiwan, compared with 30 per cent in Hong Kong.
But it appears that every move by governments to rein things in is blunted by the ingenuity of peoples crazed by the market and unshaken in their belief that 'you cannot go wrong with property'.
In China, for instance, some people have resorted to dubious divorces and 'house-sitters' with fake ownership certificates to work around the 'one-home-per-family' policy. Under this rule - implemented in 12 cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - after their first property each married couple would have to fork out at least a 50 per cent downpayment and face tougher conditions for bank loans for additional house purchases.
Or take the case of Madam Chang, a 54-year-old Taipei resident, who pooled NT$10 million (S$424,000) with her friends a few years ago to speculate in the market. According to Liberty Times, the bunch of friends quickly resold their first apartment for a profit. Since then, Madam Chang has made NT$20 million and is sitting on 27 apartments.
The only thing curbing her appetite is that fresh credit is increasingly difficult to get.
Professor Chang Chin-oh, an expert on land economics at Taipei's National Cheng Chi University, attributes the property fever to the loose monetary policy of low interest rates and higher currency circulation that Taiwan adopted during the recession.
The easing of political tension and closer economic engagement with the mainland over the past two years also boosted investors' confidence.
As a result, he said, more people are buying property for investment and selling it off quickly. 'Very few people are buying for their own use,' he said.
Likewise, Hong Kong's property boom is in some part the result of the local dollar's peg to the greenback. Cheap credit in the US is reflected locally as well, fuelling demand for property.
Will property prices cool? The signs are not good.
Beijing's moves to curb the hike in home prices had some effect between May and July but, by last month, the speculators had returned with a vengeance. And with real estate accounting for nearly 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which planner wants to shut down a growth engine?
Likewise, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been trying to prevent a local version of the sub-prime mortgage crisis by tightening lending conditions for banks, according to Mr Ricky Poon, an executive director at Colliers International.
Among the moves, as Mr Harper noted, is that any mortgage above S$2 million requires a 40 per cent downpayment. But even that is like spitting into a stiff wind.
There is no evidence that the demand from the mainland for Hong Kong homes will ease. Besides, it is tough to control property prices when the broader economies themselves are so buoyant.
Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund forecast that China's GDP would expand 10.5 per cent this year. A high savings rate and that too few investment channels are available to investors are also contributing to Chinese parking their money in real estate. In the five years to 2007, China's savings rate jumped nearly 10 percentage points to 38 per cent of GDP.
What is more, over a 20-, or even 10-year horizon, it is difficult to find a major city in much of developing Asia - from Beijing to Bangalore - where property prices have slid.
Such is the appetite for a private shelter, never mind if it is only the size of a shoe box.
And even if you provided government-subsidised rental apartments, as Taipei is planning to do, the young would still be loath to trade that for a life away from the pulsing downtown.
Ms Emily Wu, a Taiwanese video technician in her 20s, pays NT$9,000 a month for a room just one metro rail stop away from the Xinyi business and shopping district. She says she would rather live there than in a spacious apartment in the suburbs. 'I want to be near where all the action is,' says Ms Wu.
Difficult as it is, governments need to watch property prices - and intervene where necessary - for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a healthy property market undergirds the broader economy by boosting the values of stocks and commodities. Also, most people in Asia tend to keep a good part of their nest eggs in property.
While a steady increase in real estate prices is welcome, bubbles are feared because a housing market collapse will destroy consumer confidence and shake every industry from salt to software.
Excessive run-ups in prices that put home ownership out of reach also tend to fuel frustration and even social unrest.
Earlier this month, as Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang outlined measures to cool the property market, an angry crowd of some 200 people protested outside the Legislative Council building, demanding that the government do more to put affordable housing within their reach.
'With property prices soaring to new heights, the poorer sections of society have no hope of buying their own apartments,' said Ms Penny Keung, one of the protesters.
Mr Jack Liu, 28, has a similar complaint. He earns 10,000 yuan a month in Beijing's flourishing information technology sector but fears he will not get to buy his dream house: 'I'm working so hard... but the prices are rising so much faster than my income.'
graceng@sph.com.sg
contact@diegolaje.com
seokhwai@sph.com.sg
Additional reporting by Lina Miao
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OUT OF REACH
'With property prices soaring to new heights, the poorer sections of society have no hope of buying their own apartments.'
Hong Kong resident Penny Keung
ST : Two developments up for collective sale
Oct 26, 2010
Two developments up for collective sale
By Esther Teo
CARDIFF Court, off Lorong Chuan, is being launched for collective sale today with a $25 million price tag.
The 21-unit project, on a 43,491 sq ft residential leasehold site, can be redeveloped into a project of up to five storeys.
The lease has 72 years left. The potential gross floor area (GFA) of a new project there is about 60,887 sq ft.
Marketing agent Teakhwa Real Estate said the District 19 property is expected to fetch about $25 million.
That works out to $519.50 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) - including estimated development charges of $6.63 million to top up the lease to 99 years.
At that price, the break-even price for a developer is estimated to be about $860 psf to $900 psf.
That means prices in excess of $1,100 psf can be expected at launch, Teakhwa said. About 96 apartments of about 600 sq ft each can be built, it added.
Units at nearby 99-year leasehold project Hong Leong's The Scala were recently sold for between $1,100 psf and $1,500 psf while another project in the area, Kovan Residences, has also sold above the $1,000 psf mark.
'The new condo project should appeal to both home buyers and investors alike - specifically to the upper middle class Singaporeans living in the Serangoon area and foreigners looking at well-located residential projects,' Teakhwa said.
Another development, Marine Point, a freehold 18-storey residential block at 95 Marine Parade Road, was launched for collective sale last Wednesday at an indicative price of about $110 million. Marine Point consists of 30 apartments and two penthouses on a 51,185 sq ft site. Its potential GFA is 107,489 sq ft.
This works out to about $1,116 psf ppr, including an estimated development charge of $10 million.
It can be redeveloped to accommodate about 90 to 100 apartments averaging 1,000 sq ft each, said marketing agent ERA Asia-Pacific associate director Eugene Lim.
In both cases, the requisite more than 80 per cent of owners by share value and strata floor area have signed the collective agreement.
Both tenders will close on Nov 18.
Two developments up for collective sale
By Esther Teo
CARDIFF Court, off Lorong Chuan, is being launched for collective sale today with a $25 million price tag.
The 21-unit project, on a 43,491 sq ft residential leasehold site, can be redeveloped into a project of up to five storeys.
The lease has 72 years left. The potential gross floor area (GFA) of a new project there is about 60,887 sq ft.
Marketing agent Teakhwa Real Estate said the District 19 property is expected to fetch about $25 million.
That works out to $519.50 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) - including estimated development charges of $6.63 million to top up the lease to 99 years.
At that price, the break-even price for a developer is estimated to be about $860 psf to $900 psf.
That means prices in excess of $1,100 psf can be expected at launch, Teakhwa said. About 96 apartments of about 600 sq ft each can be built, it added.
Units at nearby 99-year leasehold project Hong Leong's The Scala were recently sold for between $1,100 psf and $1,500 psf while another project in the area, Kovan Residences, has also sold above the $1,000 psf mark.
'The new condo project should appeal to both home buyers and investors alike - specifically to the upper middle class Singaporeans living in the Serangoon area and foreigners looking at well-located residential projects,' Teakhwa said.
Another development, Marine Point, a freehold 18-storey residential block at 95 Marine Parade Road, was launched for collective sale last Wednesday at an indicative price of about $110 million. Marine Point consists of 30 apartments and two penthouses on a 51,185 sq ft site. Its potential GFA is 107,489 sq ft.
This works out to about $1,116 psf ppr, including an estimated development charge of $10 million.
It can be redeveloped to accommodate about 90 to 100 apartments averaging 1,000 sq ft each, said marketing agent ERA Asia-Pacific associate director Eugene Lim.
In both cases, the requisite more than 80 per cent of owners by share value and strata floor area have signed the collective agreement.
Both tenders will close on Nov 18.
ST : Farrer Road straightens out as MRT work ends
Oct 25, 2010
Farrer Road straightens out as MRT work ends
By Christopher Tan, motor mouth
Farrer Road before is now straight and has been widened (above). -- ST PHOTOS: ALPHONSUS CHERN, CAROLINE CHIA
FARRER Road is back to its original alignment after six years of twisty diversions necessary for construction of the Circle Line.
The busy thoroughfare has not only been straightened, but has also been widened. It now has four lanes each way, up from three.
With that, the traffic bottleneck which has been the bugbear of motorists since the construction started in 2004 has been removed.
'There should be significant improvement to traffic flow,' said retired traffic planner Joseph Yee, 65.
Farrer Road is part of the $400 million Outer Ring Road System, which currently allows motorists to travel over 20km from Tampines to Queensway with only two traffic lights along Lornie Road.
Motorist Adrian Wang, 50, is glad Farrer Road is straight again. 'I've been avoiding travelling that way for years because of the peak-hour jams at Farrer,' said the warehouse manager. 'I will go back to using it when the occasion arises.'
Workers were seen putting the finishing touches to the Farrer Road MRT station exterior last week.
The station is part of the remaining two stages of the Circle Line which will open by the middle of next year. The stages link Marymount to HarbourFront, passing places like the Botanic Gardens and Holland Village along the way.
A Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman said all 12 of the completed stations along this stretch are expected to achieve temporary occupation permits by the end of this year.
'The stations will then be architecturally fitted with electrical and mechanical works,' she added.
The Farrer Road station has one unique feature: a pedestrian overhead bridge with lifts at both ends.
This is to allow pedestrians to cross the road after train service hours, when the underground station - which forms an underpass across Farrer Road - is closed.
The LTA, however, said the bridge is not part of a plan currently under study to erect overhead bridges with lifts at selected MRT stations. It said that study had not been completed.
Ms Lee Bee Wah, an MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, who has been lobbying for such facilities for three years now, hopes they will be built.
'I really hope they'll do it, especially if we want to encourage our senior citizens to be active and take public transport,' she said.
Two other roads diverted by Circle Line works - Holland and North Buona Vista - are expected to return to their original alignment in the next few weeks.
Farrer Road straightens out as MRT work ends
By Christopher Tan, motor mouth
Farrer Road before is now straight and has been widened (above). -- ST PHOTOS: ALPHONSUS CHERN, CAROLINE CHIA
FARRER Road is back to its original alignment after six years of twisty diversions necessary for construction of the Circle Line.
The busy thoroughfare has not only been straightened, but has also been widened. It now has four lanes each way, up from three.
With that, the traffic bottleneck which has been the bugbear of motorists since the construction started in 2004 has been removed.
'There should be significant improvement to traffic flow,' said retired traffic planner Joseph Yee, 65.
Farrer Road is part of the $400 million Outer Ring Road System, which currently allows motorists to travel over 20km from Tampines to Queensway with only two traffic lights along Lornie Road.
Motorist Adrian Wang, 50, is glad Farrer Road is straight again. 'I've been avoiding travelling that way for years because of the peak-hour jams at Farrer,' said the warehouse manager. 'I will go back to using it when the occasion arises.'
Workers were seen putting the finishing touches to the Farrer Road MRT station exterior last week.
The station is part of the remaining two stages of the Circle Line which will open by the middle of next year. The stages link Marymount to HarbourFront, passing places like the Botanic Gardens and Holland Village along the way.
A Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman said all 12 of the completed stations along this stretch are expected to achieve temporary occupation permits by the end of this year.
'The stations will then be architecturally fitted with electrical and mechanical works,' she added.
The Farrer Road station has one unique feature: a pedestrian overhead bridge with lifts at both ends.
This is to allow pedestrians to cross the road after train service hours, when the underground station - which forms an underpass across Farrer Road - is closed.
The LTA, however, said the bridge is not part of a plan currently under study to erect overhead bridges with lifts at selected MRT stations. It said that study had not been completed.
Ms Lee Bee Wah, an MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, who has been lobbying for such facilities for three years now, hopes they will be built.
'I really hope they'll do it, especially if we want to encourage our senior citizens to be active and take public transport,' she said.
Two other roads diverted by Circle Line works - Holland and North Buona Vista - are expected to return to their original alignment in the next few weeks.
ST : HDB flat sellers left in tight spot by new rules
Oct 24, 2010
HDB flat sellers left in tight spot by new rules
They are making unofficial deals with buyers to stay on past the date to vacate flat
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
Some owners of HDB resale flats are resorting to illegal pacts when inking a sale, saying the recent cooling measures for the property market have left them in a quandary.
The agreements - either verbal or written contracts - are for an HDB flat seller to overstay in the sold flat, past the legal date that he or she has to vacate it.
Property agents told The Sunday Times the trend emerged shortly after the Government tightened financing rules for new property purchases on Aug 30. They claim it is affecting more than half of resale transactions today.
Under the new rules, any buyer who takes a home loan from a bank for a second home can be granted only 70 per cent financing for that new property, down from 80 per cent. So his downpayment will be 30 per cent - up from 20 per cent previously.
The rule also applies to HDB flat owners. If they hope to get the higher 80 per cent loan for a new flat they are upgrading or moving to, they have to prove they have sold their previous flat. Otherwise, they qualify for only 70 per cent financing and have to stump up 10 per cent more in downpayment.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore stipulates the proof of sale is the official letter from the HDB to the seller approving the deal.
The trouble is that this letter is typically issued only about six weeks before the legal completion of the sale (see box).
Only with this letter can the seller exercise an option to buy his next flat. The six weeks left is too short a timeframe for the seller to find another home, renovate it and move in. Thus, such sellers are requesting extended stays of at least a month or two beyond the completion date as a condition of sale.
Such deals are informal 'gentlemen's agreements' that are either verbal or written. They are illegal under HDB rules and do not accord any legal protection to flat sellers.
Agents told The Sunday Times that flat sellers are still inking them because they have no choice.
If it were a private property transaction, a seller could still rent the unit from the buyer for a couple of months until he is ready to move into his new home.
But HDB rules require that the buyer live in his flat for a minimum period of five years, during which he may not lease it out. So the rental option is out of the question.
Agents say the group of HDB flat owners most affected are upgraders who are not cash-rich and cannot afford to pay 10 per cent more in downpayment.
PropNex agent G. Rajan, 50, an HDB specialist for the past 10 years, said the rules have proved disruptive to these sellers. 'These sellers are caught by the new policy, they either illegally make a deal with the buyer to overstay for a few months, or look for short-term rental and have to move twice.'
Even if sellers decide to move twice, they face problems securing rentals for short periods of one to three months. Rental contracts are usually for at least six months.
C&H Realty senior associate director Lee Han Sing, 36, said: 'Agents now need a second stage of negotiations even after the price is agreed, because buyers and sellers cannot agree on the overstay.'
One seller in this situation, who declined to be named, said the entire process was 'very troublesome' as he had to negotiate an unofficial agreement with his buyer to overstay in the flat for four months.
The seller, in his 30s, is moving from a four-room flat to a five- roomer in Jurong West, and had to pay a monthly rental of $2,000 to the buyer - which is technically illegal - before he agreed.
Mr Lee said there are worse situations. He knows of a buyer and seller who had already submitted the sale papers to HDB, but now cannot agree on the length of overstay.
The HDB could not respond by press time to queries that The Sunday Times posed during the week.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said one solution would be for the Government to allow 80 per cent bank financing for all HDB home buyers, on condition that they sell their existing HDB homes within three to six months.
'No household is allowed to own more than one HDB flat anyway, so I don't understand why these new rules have to apply to HDB owners,' he said.
West Coast GRC MP Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, agreed it was logical to say that HDB owners who move to other HDB flats are not likely to be property speculators.
'It's worth raising (the issue) to HDB to see if there are some alternatives,' he said.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tricky situation
The typical legal completion period for an HDB resale transaction is about 14 weeks from the time the seller registers a resale application to the HDB, or 18 weeks from the time the seller grants the buyer an option to purchase (OTP).
The buyer then has two weeks to exercise the OTP. After the OTP is signed, the seller's agent submits the necessary paperwork to the HDB within the next two weeks.
The HDB processes the resale transaction, and calls both the buyer and the seller to attend 'the first appointment' - which takes place six to eight weeks from when the resale application is lodged.
At this appointment, both parties finalise and sign off on the sale.
It then takes two more weeks for the HDB to issue the seller an official letter approving the sale. The seller must produce this letter in order to qualify for 80 per cent financing from a bank for his next home loan, under new rules introduced on Aug 30. Without this letter, he qualifies for only 70 per cent financing.
The trouble is that, by the time he receives this letter, there are only six weeks left to the legal completion of the sale, after which he has to move out of the flat.
HDB flat sellers left in tight spot by new rules
They are making unofficial deals with buyers to stay on past the date to vacate flat
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
Some owners of HDB resale flats are resorting to illegal pacts when inking a sale, saying the recent cooling measures for the property market have left them in a quandary.
The agreements - either verbal or written contracts - are for an HDB flat seller to overstay in the sold flat, past the legal date that he or she has to vacate it.
Property agents told The Sunday Times the trend emerged shortly after the Government tightened financing rules for new property purchases on Aug 30. They claim it is affecting more than half of resale transactions today.
Under the new rules, any buyer who takes a home loan from a bank for a second home can be granted only 70 per cent financing for that new property, down from 80 per cent. So his downpayment will be 30 per cent - up from 20 per cent previously.
The rule also applies to HDB flat owners. If they hope to get the higher 80 per cent loan for a new flat they are upgrading or moving to, they have to prove they have sold their previous flat. Otherwise, they qualify for only 70 per cent financing and have to stump up 10 per cent more in downpayment.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore stipulates the proof of sale is the official letter from the HDB to the seller approving the deal.
The trouble is that this letter is typically issued only about six weeks before the legal completion of the sale (see box).
Only with this letter can the seller exercise an option to buy his next flat. The six weeks left is too short a timeframe for the seller to find another home, renovate it and move in. Thus, such sellers are requesting extended stays of at least a month or two beyond the completion date as a condition of sale.
Such deals are informal 'gentlemen's agreements' that are either verbal or written. They are illegal under HDB rules and do not accord any legal protection to flat sellers.
Agents told The Sunday Times that flat sellers are still inking them because they have no choice.
If it were a private property transaction, a seller could still rent the unit from the buyer for a couple of months until he is ready to move into his new home.
But HDB rules require that the buyer live in his flat for a minimum period of five years, during which he may not lease it out. So the rental option is out of the question.
Agents say the group of HDB flat owners most affected are upgraders who are not cash-rich and cannot afford to pay 10 per cent more in downpayment.
PropNex agent G. Rajan, 50, an HDB specialist for the past 10 years, said the rules have proved disruptive to these sellers. 'These sellers are caught by the new policy, they either illegally make a deal with the buyer to overstay for a few months, or look for short-term rental and have to move twice.'
Even if sellers decide to move twice, they face problems securing rentals for short periods of one to three months. Rental contracts are usually for at least six months.
C&H Realty senior associate director Lee Han Sing, 36, said: 'Agents now need a second stage of negotiations even after the price is agreed, because buyers and sellers cannot agree on the overstay.'
One seller in this situation, who declined to be named, said the entire process was 'very troublesome' as he had to negotiate an unofficial agreement with his buyer to overstay in the flat for four months.
The seller, in his 30s, is moving from a four-room flat to a five- roomer in Jurong West, and had to pay a monthly rental of $2,000 to the buyer - which is technically illegal - before he agreed.
Mr Lee said there are worse situations. He knows of a buyer and seller who had already submitted the sale papers to HDB, but now cannot agree on the length of overstay.
The HDB could not respond by press time to queries that The Sunday Times posed during the week.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said one solution would be for the Government to allow 80 per cent bank financing for all HDB home buyers, on condition that they sell their existing HDB homes within three to six months.
'No household is allowed to own more than one HDB flat anyway, so I don't understand why these new rules have to apply to HDB owners,' he said.
West Coast GRC MP Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, agreed it was logical to say that HDB owners who move to other HDB flats are not likely to be property speculators.
'It's worth raising (the issue) to HDB to see if there are some alternatives,' he said.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tricky situation
The typical legal completion period for an HDB resale transaction is about 14 weeks from the time the seller registers a resale application to the HDB, or 18 weeks from the time the seller grants the buyer an option to purchase (OTP).
The buyer then has two weeks to exercise the OTP. After the OTP is signed, the seller's agent submits the necessary paperwork to the HDB within the next two weeks.
The HDB processes the resale transaction, and calls both the buyer and the seller to attend 'the first appointment' - which takes place six to eight weeks from when the resale application is lodged.
At this appointment, both parties finalise and sign off on the sale.
It then takes two more weeks for the HDB to issue the seller an official letter approving the sale. The seller must produce this letter in order to qualify for 80 per cent financing from a bank for his next home loan, under new rules introduced on Aug 30. Without this letter, he qualifies for only 70 per cent financing.
The trouble is that, by the time he receives this letter, there are only six weeks left to the legal completion of the sale, after which he has to move out of the flat.
ST : Marine Cove tenants get temporary reprieve
Oct 24, 2010
Marine Cove tenants get temporary reprieve
By Jessica Lim
It looks like the clutch of pubs and restaurants surrounding the McDonald's outlet in East Coast Park will stay - at least for six months longer than planned.
Last Friday, the 32 tenants of Marine Cove, as the place is called, were given an option to extend their leases by another six months.
Their leases there originally expire on March 16 next year, and the current master tenant, Rock Productions - the business arm of New Creation Church - had asked them to move out by that date.
The land, managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), will be handed to the National Parks Board (NParks) thereafter.
NParks has said that it plans to 'free up park space for the public, as well as enhance access to the beach' which may see some buildings torn down. The area will then be opened up for public tender.
All these changes, tenants have said, led to their not knowing if they would be in business in the coming months.
'To facilitate a smooth transition for the businesses at the Marine Cove area, we are offering the tenants a six-month extension,' said Mr Bernard Lim, NParks' assistant director of coastal parks.
The agency will cater to park visitors' dining and recreational needs, he added.
One tenant, Mr Foo Chit Seng, bar-restaurant The Beach Hut's owner, said he received a letter from NParks last Friday.
'We are grateful for the extension. But we still don't know if we can stay beyond that,' he said, adding that tenants have been told the entire area would be closed for renovations after that.
'The spots here will be up for bidding, and I don't think we will be given priority,' he said.
It is the same for the owner of Taroda Racing, Mr Dexter Low, 42. He said he was 'still waiting for a concrete plan to decide what to do next'. His company rents out remote-controlled cars.
McDonald's Restaurants communications director Linda Ming said: 'I think generally, we are pleased with the extension, but what would make us even happier is if we were given a chance to be part of the new Marine Cove, especially since we have been there for the past 28 years.'
Marine Cove tenants get temporary reprieve
By Jessica Lim
It looks like the clutch of pubs and restaurants surrounding the McDonald's outlet in East Coast Park will stay - at least for six months longer than planned.
Last Friday, the 32 tenants of Marine Cove, as the place is called, were given an option to extend their leases by another six months.
Their leases there originally expire on March 16 next year, and the current master tenant, Rock Productions - the business arm of New Creation Church - had asked them to move out by that date.
The land, managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), will be handed to the National Parks Board (NParks) thereafter.
NParks has said that it plans to 'free up park space for the public, as well as enhance access to the beach' which may see some buildings torn down. The area will then be opened up for public tender.
All these changes, tenants have said, led to their not knowing if they would be in business in the coming months.
'To facilitate a smooth transition for the businesses at the Marine Cove area, we are offering the tenants a six-month extension,' said Mr Bernard Lim, NParks' assistant director of coastal parks.
The agency will cater to park visitors' dining and recreational needs, he added.
One tenant, Mr Foo Chit Seng, bar-restaurant The Beach Hut's owner, said he received a letter from NParks last Friday.
'We are grateful for the extension. But we still don't know if we can stay beyond that,' he said, adding that tenants have been told the entire area would be closed for renovations after that.
'The spots here will be up for bidding, and I don't think we will be given priority,' he said.
It is the same for the owner of Taroda Racing, Mr Dexter Low, 42. He said he was 'still waiting for a concrete plan to decide what to do next'. His company rents out remote-controlled cars.
McDonald's Restaurants communications director Linda Ming said: 'I think generally, we are pleased with the extension, but what would make us even happier is if we were given a chance to be part of the new Marine Cove, especially since we have been there for the past 28 years.'
ST : HDB flat sellers left in tight spot by new rules
Oct 24, 2010
HDB flat sellers left in tight spot by new rules
They are making unofficial deals with buyers to stay on past the date to vacate flat
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
Some owners of HDB resale flats are resorting to illegal pacts when inking a sale, saying the recent cooling measures for the property market have left them in a quandary.
The agreements - either verbal or written contracts - are for an HDB flat seller to overstay in the sold flat, past the legal date that he or she has to vacate it.
Property agents told The Sunday Times the trend emerged shortly after the Government tightened financing rules for new property purchases on Aug 30. They claim it is affecting more than half of resale transactions today.
Under the new rules, any buyer who takes a home loan from a bank for a second home can be granted only 70 per cent financing for that new property, down from 80 per cent. So his downpayment will be 30 per cent - up from 20 per cent previously.
The rule also applies to HDB flat owners. If they hope to get the higher 80 per cent loan for a new flat they are upgrading or moving to, they have to prove they have sold their previous flat. Otherwise, they qualify for only 70 per cent financing and have to stump up 10 per cent more in downpayment.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore stipulates the proof of sale is the official letter from the HDB to the seller approving the deal.
The trouble is that this letter is typically issued only about six weeks before the legal completion of the sale (see box).
Only with this letter can the seller exercise an option to buy his next flat. The six weeks left is too short a timeframe for the seller to find another home, renovate it and move in. Thus, such sellers are requesting extended stays of at least a month or two beyond the completion date as a condition of sale.
Such deals are informal 'gentlemen's agreements' that are either verbal or written. They are illegal under HDB rules and do not accord any legal protection to flat sellers.
Agents told The Sunday Times that flat sellers are still inking them because they have no choice.
If it were a private property transaction, a seller could still rent the unit from the buyer for a couple of months until he is ready to move into his new home.
But HDB rules require that the buyer live in his flat for a minimum period of five years, during which he may not lease it out. So the rental option is out of the question.
Agents say the group of HDB flat owners most affected are upgraders who are not cash-rich and cannot afford to pay 10 per cent more in downpayment.
PropNex agent G. Rajan, 50, an HDB specialist for the past 10 years, said the rules have proved disruptive to these sellers. 'These sellers are caught by the new policy, they either illegally make a deal with the buyer to overstay for a few months, or look for short-term rental and have to move twice.'
Even if sellers decide to move twice, they face problems securing rentals for short periods of one to three months. Rental contracts are usually for at least six months.
C&H Realty senior associate director Lee Han Sing, 36, said: 'Agents now need a second stage of negotiations even after the price is agreed, because buyers and sellers cannot agree on the overstay.'
One seller in this situation, who declined to be named, said the entire process was 'very troublesome' as he had to negotiate an unofficial agreement with his buyer to overstay in the flat for four months.
The seller, in his 30s, is moving from a four-room flat to a five- roomer in Jurong West, and had to pay a monthly rental of $2,000 to the buyer - which is technically illegal - before he agreed.
Mr Lee said there are worse situations. He knows of a buyer and seller who had already submitted the sale papers to HDB, but now cannot agree on the length of overstay.
The HDB could not respond by press time to queries that The Sunday Times posed during the week.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said one solution would be for the Government to allow 80 per cent bank financing for all HDB home buyers, on condition that they sell their existing HDB homes within three to six months.
'No household is allowed to own more than one HDB flat anyway, so I don't understand why these new rules have to apply to HDB owners,' he said.
West Coast GRC MP Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, agreed it was logical to say that HDB owners who move to other HDB flats are not likely to be property speculators.
'It's worth raising (the issue) to HDB to see if there are some alternatives,' he said.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
HDB flat sellers left in tight spot by new rules
They are making unofficial deals with buyers to stay on past the date to vacate flat
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
Some owners of HDB resale flats are resorting to illegal pacts when inking a sale, saying the recent cooling measures for the property market have left them in a quandary.
The agreements - either verbal or written contracts - are for an HDB flat seller to overstay in the sold flat, past the legal date that he or she has to vacate it.
Property agents told The Sunday Times the trend emerged shortly after the Government tightened financing rules for new property purchases on Aug 30. They claim it is affecting more than half of resale transactions today.
Under the new rules, any buyer who takes a home loan from a bank for a second home can be granted only 70 per cent financing for that new property, down from 80 per cent. So his downpayment will be 30 per cent - up from 20 per cent previously.
The rule also applies to HDB flat owners. If they hope to get the higher 80 per cent loan for a new flat they are upgrading or moving to, they have to prove they have sold their previous flat. Otherwise, they qualify for only 70 per cent financing and have to stump up 10 per cent more in downpayment.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore stipulates the proof of sale is the official letter from the HDB to the seller approving the deal.
The trouble is that this letter is typically issued only about six weeks before the legal completion of the sale (see box).
Only with this letter can the seller exercise an option to buy his next flat. The six weeks left is too short a timeframe for the seller to find another home, renovate it and move in. Thus, such sellers are requesting extended stays of at least a month or two beyond the completion date as a condition of sale.
Such deals are informal 'gentlemen's agreements' that are either verbal or written. They are illegal under HDB rules and do not accord any legal protection to flat sellers.
Agents told The Sunday Times that flat sellers are still inking them because they have no choice.
If it were a private property transaction, a seller could still rent the unit from the buyer for a couple of months until he is ready to move into his new home.
But HDB rules require that the buyer live in his flat for a minimum period of five years, during which he may not lease it out. So the rental option is out of the question.
Agents say the group of HDB flat owners most affected are upgraders who are not cash-rich and cannot afford to pay 10 per cent more in downpayment.
PropNex agent G. Rajan, 50, an HDB specialist for the past 10 years, said the rules have proved disruptive to these sellers. 'These sellers are caught by the new policy, they either illegally make a deal with the buyer to overstay for a few months, or look for short-term rental and have to move twice.'
Even if sellers decide to move twice, they face problems securing rentals for short periods of one to three months. Rental contracts are usually for at least six months.
C&H Realty senior associate director Lee Han Sing, 36, said: 'Agents now need a second stage of negotiations even after the price is agreed, because buyers and sellers cannot agree on the overstay.'
One seller in this situation, who declined to be named, said the entire process was 'very troublesome' as he had to negotiate an unofficial agreement with his buyer to overstay in the flat for four months.
The seller, in his 30s, is moving from a four-room flat to a five- roomer in Jurong West, and had to pay a monthly rental of $2,000 to the buyer - which is technically illegal - before he agreed.
Mr Lee said there are worse situations. He knows of a buyer and seller who had already submitted the sale papers to HDB, but now cannot agree on the length of overstay.
The HDB could not respond by press time to queries that The Sunday Times posed during the week.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said one solution would be for the Government to allow 80 per cent bank financing for all HDB home buyers, on condition that they sell their existing HDB homes within three to six months.
'No household is allowed to own more than one HDB flat anyway, so I don't understand why these new rules have to apply to HDB owners,' he said.
West Coast GRC MP Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, agreed it was logical to say that HDB owners who move to other HDB flats are not likely to be property speculators.
'It's worth raising (the issue) to HDB to see if there are some alternatives,' he said.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
ST : Cheque mix-up scuttles property deal
Oct 23, 2010
Cheque mix-up scuttles property deal
Man wrote cheque for option fee to seller's law firm, instead of to seller as earlier agreed
By K.C. Vijayan LAW CORRESPONDENT
AN INVESTMENT banker lost his chance to buy an $18.5 million bungalow in Ewart Park when his cheque for the option fee was made out to the seller's law firm instead of to the seller.
He then sought High Court action to enforce the sale and stop the owner from reselling to anyone else, but his claim was dismissed by Justice Belinda Ang on Tuesday. Her judgment grounds were released yesterday.
The judge said that the seller, Ms Soon Chia Chuen, 38, was entitled to the $184,000 option fee the buyer, Mr Zain Asif Fancy, 36, had paid. This was 1 per cent of the selling price.
He had, through his lawyers, made out a cheque for the remaining 4 per cent, or $738,400, to the law firm representing Ms Soon.
Mr Zain had believed it was sufficient to comply with the clause specified in the sale contract.
His lawyers from Tan Peng Chin LLC, who handled the deal, hand-delivered the cheque and the accompanying sales acceptance documents to Ms Soon's lawyers from Derrick Wong & Lim on the day of the deadline in August.
But when she found out the cheque had been made out to her lawyers, she refused to continue with the sale.
She pointed out the deal was clinched after several rounds of talks, on the understanding that the cheque was to be made payable to her.
She had argued in court documents that she wanted the cheque to be in her name as she needed the money quickly to book a house in Trevose Crescent that she wanted to buy as a replacement.
The longer the delay on that deal, the higher the prices went as the seller was getting better offers from others, she said.
The property market was booming then, and Ms Soon had, among other things, 'reluctantly' agreed to a five-week period for Mr Zain to exercise the option instead of the usual two weeks.
She was concerned that prices would rise further and she would lose out if he opted not to buy after a five-week wait.
He had already paid the 1 per cent option fee in June and the remaining 4 per cent that he paid to exercise the option to buy became the subject of the court dispute.
Lawyers say that in a property deal, the money is normally paid to the law firm acting for the seller, which will keep it as a stakeholder in the sale.
This is to safeguard the money in case the deal derails for various reasons - such as if the seller subsequently dies, or is a bankrupt or cannot go through with the sale for some reason.
Mr Zain said in court documents that the property was 'of particular significance' to him as it 'sits on a large and uniquely sited plot of land in one of Singapore's most exclusive and prestigious 'Good Class Bungalows' enclaves and is a rare find in land-scarce Singapore'.
His lawyer, Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo from WongPartnership, whom he hired separately to fight the High Court case, argued that the $738,400 cheque to be issued in Ms Soon's name was not something that had to be strictly complied with.
But lawyer Prabhakaran Nair for Ms Soon countered that acceptance must match the offer in the way it was agreed upon.
Justice Ang said that sending the cheque to Ms Soon's lawyers 'was contrary to what was already agreed...which was for the cheque in (Ms Soon's) favour to be forthwith released to her'.
vijayan@sph.com.sg
Cheque mix-up scuttles property deal
Man wrote cheque for option fee to seller's law firm, instead of to seller as earlier agreed
By K.C. Vijayan LAW CORRESPONDENT
AN INVESTMENT banker lost his chance to buy an $18.5 million bungalow in Ewart Park when his cheque for the option fee was made out to the seller's law firm instead of to the seller.
He then sought High Court action to enforce the sale and stop the owner from reselling to anyone else, but his claim was dismissed by Justice Belinda Ang on Tuesday. Her judgment grounds were released yesterday.
The judge said that the seller, Ms Soon Chia Chuen, 38, was entitled to the $184,000 option fee the buyer, Mr Zain Asif Fancy, 36, had paid. This was 1 per cent of the selling price.
He had, through his lawyers, made out a cheque for the remaining 4 per cent, or $738,400, to the law firm representing Ms Soon.
Mr Zain had believed it was sufficient to comply with the clause specified in the sale contract.
His lawyers from Tan Peng Chin LLC, who handled the deal, hand-delivered the cheque and the accompanying sales acceptance documents to Ms Soon's lawyers from Derrick Wong & Lim on the day of the deadline in August.
But when she found out the cheque had been made out to her lawyers, she refused to continue with the sale.
She pointed out the deal was clinched after several rounds of talks, on the understanding that the cheque was to be made payable to her.
She had argued in court documents that she wanted the cheque to be in her name as she needed the money quickly to book a house in Trevose Crescent that she wanted to buy as a replacement.
The longer the delay on that deal, the higher the prices went as the seller was getting better offers from others, she said.
The property market was booming then, and Ms Soon had, among other things, 'reluctantly' agreed to a five-week period for Mr Zain to exercise the option instead of the usual two weeks.
She was concerned that prices would rise further and she would lose out if he opted not to buy after a five-week wait.
He had already paid the 1 per cent option fee in June and the remaining 4 per cent that he paid to exercise the option to buy became the subject of the court dispute.
Lawyers say that in a property deal, the money is normally paid to the law firm acting for the seller, which will keep it as a stakeholder in the sale.
This is to safeguard the money in case the deal derails for various reasons - such as if the seller subsequently dies, or is a bankrupt or cannot go through with the sale for some reason.
Mr Zain said in court documents that the property was 'of particular significance' to him as it 'sits on a large and uniquely sited plot of land in one of Singapore's most exclusive and prestigious 'Good Class Bungalows' enclaves and is a rare find in land-scarce Singapore'.
His lawyer, Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo from WongPartnership, whom he hired separately to fight the High Court case, argued that the $738,400 cheque to be issued in Ms Soon's name was not something that had to be strictly complied with.
But lawyer Prabhakaran Nair for Ms Soon countered that acceptance must match the offer in the way it was agreed upon.
Justice Ang said that sending the cheque to Ms Soon's lawyers 'was contrary to what was already agreed...which was for the cheque in (Ms Soon's) favour to be forthwith released to her'.
vijayan@sph.com.sg
ST : Fewer HDB resale flats change hands
Oct 23, 2010
Fewer HDB resale flats change hands
But prices rise 4 per cent in third quarter to hit yet another record
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
New measures introduced on Aug 30 to cool the property market by tightening home financing and restricting ownership of public housing are not yet officially translating to lower resale flat prices. -- ST FILE PHOTO
THE recent measures to cool the HDB resale market have led to fewer flats being bought and sold, but they have yet to make a discernible impact on prices.
According to official figures released by the Housing Board (HDB) yesterday, resale flat prices rose 4 per cent in the third quarter of this year to hit yet another record.
This is the ninth straight quarter of rising prices. Prices had risen 4.1 per cent in the second quarter compared to the first.
The median cash-over-valuation (COV), which is the cash premium buyers pay above the flat's valuation, was also unchanged at $30,000.
In fact, median COVs for four-room, five-room and executive flats actually rose, to $32,000, $35,000 and $40,000 in the third quarter from $30,000, $33,000 and $36,300 in the previous quarter respectively.
COVs are one measure of how hot the demand is for resale HDB flats.
Yesterday's data therefore shows that the new measures introduced on Aug 30 to tighten home financing and restrict ownership of public housing are not yet officially translating to lower resale flat prices.
The measures have, however, curbed flat sales. Resale HDB transactions fell by 10 per cent to 8,205 deals in the third quarter from 9,114 in the second quarter, largely due to a 25 per cent dip in deals last month compared to August.
Commenting on the numbers, the HDB said the full impact of the cooling measures will be captured only in the fourth quarter data as the majority of the deals done in the third quarter were submitted to HDB before the new rules.
Some property analysts had other explanations for the lag in effect. They said that prices are not falling yet because many sellers have simply taken their flats off the market in response to souring sentiment, instead of accepting lower prices.
Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at property firm Chesterton Suntec International, noted that while demand-side measures seem to have had an impact, prices could be sticky downwards as supply is limited.
'Some owners are holding on to their HDB flats, and the fresh supply of flats coming onto the market at the end of the five-year minimum occupation period is not enough,' he said.
Still, C&H Properties division director Nelson Tan, an HDB specialist, said prices will not hold for long.
'The reason is prices now are still supported by higher flat valuations, which are based on the recent housing boom, but this will eventually come down as prices soften,' he said.
Indeed, property agencies such as PropNex and ERA Asia Pacific which have captured more up-to-date transactions said prices are starting to show a dip of 3 per cent to 5 per cent.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said that the firm's data for this month showed median COV levels slipping to about $25,000, $30,000 and $35,000 for four-room, five-room and executive flats respectively.
Both PropNex and ERA data show that the median COV has dropped from $30,000 to $25,000.
Mr Ismail expects resale deals to dip a further 20 per cent in the fourth quarter, with COV levels stabilising at $22,000.
Associate director Eugene Lim said that ERA's resale volume has dipped about 25 per cent to 30 per cent since the measures were introduced and sees resale prices adjusting downwards by 5 per cent to 8 per cent over the next six months.
One home buyer, Ms Angelyn Ho, 26, said that she and her fiance were waiting on the sidelines for prices to stabilise further. 'We are hoping resale flat prices will come down by about 10 per cent before we buy a flat near our parents in Bukit Panjang,' she said.
Turning to the supply of new flats, HDB said yesterday it will be launching 1,320 flats under its build-to-order scheme in Bukit Panjang and Sengkang on Tuesday.
A further 2,200 new flats will be launched in Yishun and Punggol next month and in December.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
Fewer HDB resale flats change hands
But prices rise 4 per cent in third quarter to hit yet another record
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
New measures introduced on Aug 30 to cool the property market by tightening home financing and restricting ownership of public housing are not yet officially translating to lower resale flat prices. -- ST FILE PHOTO
THE recent measures to cool the HDB resale market have led to fewer flats being bought and sold, but they have yet to make a discernible impact on prices.
According to official figures released by the Housing Board (HDB) yesterday, resale flat prices rose 4 per cent in the third quarter of this year to hit yet another record.
This is the ninth straight quarter of rising prices. Prices had risen 4.1 per cent in the second quarter compared to the first.
The median cash-over-valuation (COV), which is the cash premium buyers pay above the flat's valuation, was also unchanged at $30,000.
In fact, median COVs for four-room, five-room and executive flats actually rose, to $32,000, $35,000 and $40,000 in the third quarter from $30,000, $33,000 and $36,300 in the previous quarter respectively.
COVs are one measure of how hot the demand is for resale HDB flats.
Yesterday's data therefore shows that the new measures introduced on Aug 30 to tighten home financing and restrict ownership of public housing are not yet officially translating to lower resale flat prices.
The measures have, however, curbed flat sales. Resale HDB transactions fell by 10 per cent to 8,205 deals in the third quarter from 9,114 in the second quarter, largely due to a 25 per cent dip in deals last month compared to August.
Commenting on the numbers, the HDB said the full impact of the cooling measures will be captured only in the fourth quarter data as the majority of the deals done in the third quarter were submitted to HDB before the new rules.
Some property analysts had other explanations for the lag in effect. They said that prices are not falling yet because many sellers have simply taken their flats off the market in response to souring sentiment, instead of accepting lower prices.
Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at property firm Chesterton Suntec International, noted that while demand-side measures seem to have had an impact, prices could be sticky downwards as supply is limited.
'Some owners are holding on to their HDB flats, and the fresh supply of flats coming onto the market at the end of the five-year minimum occupation period is not enough,' he said.
Still, C&H Properties division director Nelson Tan, an HDB specialist, said prices will not hold for long.
'The reason is prices now are still supported by higher flat valuations, which are based on the recent housing boom, but this will eventually come down as prices soften,' he said.
Indeed, property agencies such as PropNex and ERA Asia Pacific which have captured more up-to-date transactions said prices are starting to show a dip of 3 per cent to 5 per cent.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said that the firm's data for this month showed median COV levels slipping to about $25,000, $30,000 and $35,000 for four-room, five-room and executive flats respectively.
Both PropNex and ERA data show that the median COV has dropped from $30,000 to $25,000.
Mr Ismail expects resale deals to dip a further 20 per cent in the fourth quarter, with COV levels stabilising at $22,000.
Associate director Eugene Lim said that ERA's resale volume has dipped about 25 per cent to 30 per cent since the measures were introduced and sees resale prices adjusting downwards by 5 per cent to 8 per cent over the next six months.
One home buyer, Ms Angelyn Ho, 26, said that she and her fiance were waiting on the sidelines for prices to stabilise further. 'We are hoping resale flat prices will come down by about 10 per cent before we buy a flat near our parents in Bukit Panjang,' she said.
Turning to the supply of new flats, HDB said yesterday it will be launching 1,320 flats under its build-to-order scheme in Bukit Panjang and Sengkang on Tuesday.
A further 2,200 new flats will be launched in Yishun and Punggol next month and in December.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
ST : Private home prices to stay fairly flat
Oct 23, 2010
Private home prices to stay fairly flat
TWO months after the introduction of property market cooling measures, consultants are sure of one thing - Singapore private home prices are likely to be fairly flat until the end of the year.
The chief executive of consultancy PropNex, Mr Mohamed Ismail, expects the Urban Redevelopment Authority's price index to reach a plateau in the current fourth quarter, with another 2 per cent growth at most.
'(This is) simply because buyers are not coming in big numbers,' Mr Ismail told The Straits Times.
He said August's market cooling measures had weakened demand for mass market homes.
Buyers were becoming more price-sensitive, partially owing to tighter lending rules, he added.
Buyers are also carefully considering purchases given the restrictions on dual ownership, said director of research and advisory at Colliers International, Ms Tay Huey Ying.
'Buyers are really standing on the sidelines and watching,' Ms Tay said.
Another consultancy, Colliers, also expects the price index to increase by 2 per cent, at most, in the current quarter.
Consultants have differing views on the outlook for the popular mass market segment.
Mr Ismail expects prices of these homes to fall 5 per cent to 10 per cent in the first half of next year as developers respond to price-sensitive buyers.
However, Mr Ong Kah Seng, senior manager for Asia-Pacific research at Cushman & Wakefield, believes that prices are likely to remain flat.
'Buying interest will improve,' said Mr Ong, as buyers adjust to the measures by next year. However, better sentiment laced with some caution is likely to keep prices muted, he said.
Experts agree though that prices of high-end condominiums and landed properties will continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace.
High-end residential prices will rise 2 per cent to 3 per cent per quarter in the first half of next year, they believe.
HARSHA JETHNANI
Private home prices to stay fairly flat
TWO months after the introduction of property market cooling measures, consultants are sure of one thing - Singapore private home prices are likely to be fairly flat until the end of the year.
The chief executive of consultancy PropNex, Mr Mohamed Ismail, expects the Urban Redevelopment Authority's price index to reach a plateau in the current fourth quarter, with another 2 per cent growth at most.
'(This is) simply because buyers are not coming in big numbers,' Mr Ismail told The Straits Times.
He said August's market cooling measures had weakened demand for mass market homes.
Buyers were becoming more price-sensitive, partially owing to tighter lending rules, he added.
Buyers are also carefully considering purchases given the restrictions on dual ownership, said director of research and advisory at Colliers International, Ms Tay Huey Ying.
'Buyers are really standing on the sidelines and watching,' Ms Tay said.
Another consultancy, Colliers, also expects the price index to increase by 2 per cent, at most, in the current quarter.
Consultants have differing views on the outlook for the popular mass market segment.
Mr Ismail expects prices of these homes to fall 5 per cent to 10 per cent in the first half of next year as developers respond to price-sensitive buyers.
However, Mr Ong Kah Seng, senior manager for Asia-Pacific research at Cushman & Wakefield, believes that prices are likely to remain flat.
'Buying interest will improve,' said Mr Ong, as buyers adjust to the measures by next year. However, better sentiment laced with some caution is likely to keep prices muted, he said.
Experts agree though that prices of high-end condominiums and landed properties will continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace.
High-end residential prices will rise 2 per cent to 3 per cent per quarter in the first half of next year, they believe.
HARSHA JETHNANI
ST : Prices rising faster than for condos
Oct 23, 2010
LANDED HOMES
Prices rising faster than for condos
By Esther Teo
Landed home prices surged 7.7 per cent in the third quarter, compared to prices of non-landed homes, which inched up only 1.6 per cent as the market slowed after the cooling measures on Aug 30. Limited supply and robust economic growth have helped fuel sales. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
RECENT price gains of relatively scarce landed homes have far outstripped rises for non-landed homes such as condominiums, leading to talk of an increasingly segmented market.
Overall, private home prices rose 2.9 per cent in the three months to Sept 30 - below the preliminary estimate of 3.1 per cent, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's third quarter price index released yesterday.
But the market was buoyed by landed home prices, which surged 7.7 per cent in the third quarter - up from 6.2 per cent in the previous quarter.
Prices of non-landed homes, in contrast, inched up only 1.6 per cent as the market slowed, owing to the impact of the Government's property cooling measures introduced on Aug 30.
Detached homes, in particular, have led the pack with a strong 8.4 per cent price jump. They are now up 27 per cent in the first nine months of the year.
Prices of terrace and semi-detached homes also rose 7.2 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively from the previous quarter, surging 22 per cent and 23 per cent since the start of the year. This compares with a 12 per cent price gain in the same period for non-landed homes.
Experts say that landed homes have performed strongly owing to their limited supply and the robust economic growth that has led to rising income levels.
The segment is also relatively insulated from the new property rules which target speculators. Landed homes tend to attract less speculation given the higher prices of such homes, analysts say.
Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at property firm Chesterton Suntec International, said that home buyers are now looking towards landed property as they are less risky and are more likely to rise in value.
'The market is so much smaller for landed homes, unlike for condos where there is a lot of supply,' he added.
Mr Steven Tan, executive director of residential at the OrangeTee agency, said that unlike condos, where the Government can release more land to cater to growing demand, the supply of landed homes is relatively limited.
'The new rules might affect buying sentiment but if the economy grows, more businesses make profits and incomes will rise, resulting in an increasing demand for such homes.'
However, he expects a slight moderation in landed home price rises to about 2 per cent in the fourth quarter.
Cushman & Wakefield's senior manager of Asia-Pacific research Ong Kah Seng predicts an average 3 per cent gain till the second quarter of next year.
Mr Ong said: 'In addition to locals, foreigners - mainly PRs who are granted permission to buy landed homes - are also looking at landed homes where possible.'
DBS economist Irvin Seah said that the landed homes segment was more stable as it is usually made up of wealthier buyers who are less affected by the new rules such as tighter financing measures.
Fewer private homes were sold in the third quarter - 8,513 units, from 9,873 the quarter before - a 14 per cent slide.
Propnex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said: 'The reason is that buyers of private properties are now being more price-conscious across all markets.'
He added that private property sales last month saw only 39 transactions above the $2,000 per sq ft median price mark, the lowest for the year so far.
LANDED HOMES
Prices rising faster than for condos
By Esther Teo
Landed home prices surged 7.7 per cent in the third quarter, compared to prices of non-landed homes, which inched up only 1.6 per cent as the market slowed after the cooling measures on Aug 30. Limited supply and robust economic growth have helped fuel sales. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
RECENT price gains of relatively scarce landed homes have far outstripped rises for non-landed homes such as condominiums, leading to talk of an increasingly segmented market.
Overall, private home prices rose 2.9 per cent in the three months to Sept 30 - below the preliminary estimate of 3.1 per cent, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's third quarter price index released yesterday.
But the market was buoyed by landed home prices, which surged 7.7 per cent in the third quarter - up from 6.2 per cent in the previous quarter.
Prices of non-landed homes, in contrast, inched up only 1.6 per cent as the market slowed, owing to the impact of the Government's property cooling measures introduced on Aug 30.
Detached homes, in particular, have led the pack with a strong 8.4 per cent price jump. They are now up 27 per cent in the first nine months of the year.
Prices of terrace and semi-detached homes also rose 7.2 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively from the previous quarter, surging 22 per cent and 23 per cent since the start of the year. This compares with a 12 per cent price gain in the same period for non-landed homes.
Experts say that landed homes have performed strongly owing to their limited supply and the robust economic growth that has led to rising income levels.
The segment is also relatively insulated from the new property rules which target speculators. Landed homes tend to attract less speculation given the higher prices of such homes, analysts say.
Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at property firm Chesterton Suntec International, said that home buyers are now looking towards landed property as they are less risky and are more likely to rise in value.
'The market is so much smaller for landed homes, unlike for condos where there is a lot of supply,' he added.
Mr Steven Tan, executive director of residential at the OrangeTee agency, said that unlike condos, where the Government can release more land to cater to growing demand, the supply of landed homes is relatively limited.
'The new rules might affect buying sentiment but if the economy grows, more businesses make profits and incomes will rise, resulting in an increasing demand for such homes.'
However, he expects a slight moderation in landed home price rises to about 2 per cent in the fourth quarter.
Cushman & Wakefield's senior manager of Asia-Pacific research Ong Kah Seng predicts an average 3 per cent gain till the second quarter of next year.
Mr Ong said: 'In addition to locals, foreigners - mainly PRs who are granted permission to buy landed homes - are also looking at landed homes where possible.'
DBS economist Irvin Seah said that the landed homes segment was more stable as it is usually made up of wealthier buyers who are less affected by the new rules such as tighter financing measures.
Fewer private homes were sold in the third quarter - 8,513 units, from 9,873 the quarter before - a 14 per cent slide.
Propnex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said: 'The reason is that buyers of private properties are now being more price-conscious across all markets.'
He added that private property sales last month saw only 39 transactions above the $2,000 per sq ft median price mark, the lowest for the year so far.
ST : Estate agency watchdog starts work
Oct 22, 2010
Estate agency watchdog starts work
By Dhevarajan Devadas
THE Government has appointed key personnel to a new statutory board set up to regulate the real estate agency industry, which starts operating today.
The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) was set up in response to growing public complaints about errant agents. Mr Greg Seow, chairman of AMP Capital Investors (Singapore), has been appointed as president. Its executive director is Mr Chionh Chye Khye, a senior civil servant.
From Jan 1 next year, all property agents will have to be registered with the CEA and have to meet certain standards.
A statement issued by the Ministry of National Development said that key elements of this framework include enhanced licensing conditions for estate agents, registration of salespersons, regulation on the conduct of estate agency work, mechanisms for discipline and dispute resolution, and public education. It also bars property agencies and agents from simultaneously acting as moneylenders by featuring a new code on ethics and conduct, which bans agents from making referrals to moneylenders, among other practices.
The CEA is empowered to investigate complaints and impose penalties, such as fines, suspension and revocation, against errant estate agents and salespersons. Serious offenders may be prosecuted in court.
New and existing real estate agents can apply to the CEA for the licence from Nov1. The public can find out more details by calling the CEA on 1800-643-2555 or visiting www.cea.gov.sg
Estate agency watchdog starts work
By Dhevarajan Devadas
THE Government has appointed key personnel to a new statutory board set up to regulate the real estate agency industry, which starts operating today.
The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) was set up in response to growing public complaints about errant agents. Mr Greg Seow, chairman of AMP Capital Investors (Singapore), has been appointed as president. Its executive director is Mr Chionh Chye Khye, a senior civil servant.
From Jan 1 next year, all property agents will have to be registered with the CEA and have to meet certain standards.
A statement issued by the Ministry of National Development said that key elements of this framework include enhanced licensing conditions for estate agents, registration of salespersons, regulation on the conduct of estate agency work, mechanisms for discipline and dispute resolution, and public education. It also bars property agencies and agents from simultaneously acting as moneylenders by featuring a new code on ethics and conduct, which bans agents from making referrals to moneylenders, among other practices.
The CEA is empowered to investigate complaints and impose penalties, such as fines, suspension and revocation, against errant estate agents and salespersons. Serious offenders may be prosecuted in court.
New and existing real estate agents can apply to the CEA for the licence from Nov1. The public can find out more details by calling the CEA on 1800-643-2555 or visiting www.cea.gov.sg
ST : Six bids for Pasir Ris executive condo site
Oct 22, 2010
Six bids for Pasir Ris executive condo site
By Harsha Jethnani
AN EXECUTIVE condominium (EC) site in Pasir Ris has drawn healthy interest, with six bids put in by developers by the time the tender closed yesterday.
The 15,142 sq m site, at the junction of Pasir Ris Drive 1 and Elias Road, is expected to yield about 320 housing units.
The top bidder was ChoiceHomes Investment and CEL Developments at $89.88 million or $263 per sq ft (psf).
Buying interest was strong when the first new EC to go on sale in five years, Esparina Residences near Buangkok MRT station, was launched earlier this month.
ECs are the grandest form of public housing and include some condo facilities. Like other HDB flats, they are subject to a minimum five-year occupation period. Then they can be sold only to Singaporeans and permanent residents. They become private property after 10 years, and can then be sold to foreigners.
The second highest bid for the Pasir Ris site, just a notch lower, was EL Development's $89.33 million or $261 psf.
The two lowest were below $80 million. Ecco Development's $61 million or $178 psf offer was the lowest.
Hoi Hup Realty, Sunway Developments and S.C. Wong Holdings jointly bid for the land at $78.87 million or $231 psf.
The bids show developers are fairly confident about the site, said executive director of CBRE Research Joseph Tan.
He added that the site is about 15 minutes' walk from White Sands mall and Pasir Ris MRT station and bus interchange.
Knight Frank senior manager of consultancy and research Png Poh Soon told The Straits Times that demand for ECs was still good, 'in particular for this site', given the favourable reception of nearby private condo NV Residences.
Mr Tan added: 'Given that NV Residences - a private condominium - has sold 400 units at the median price of $869 psf since September, there will be a market for this new EC project if it is priced at a differential of 20 to 25 per cent lower.' He expects the break-even cost for development to be $560 psf to $600 psf.
Consultants also say the bidding for the Pasir Ris site reflects growing caution in the property market.
Head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle in Singapore, Dr Chua Yang Liang, said developers have become more realistic given moderating market sentiment.
'When the market is bullish, the variation between the top and second bidders can be quite large,' said Dr Chua.
The relatively restrained bids may in part be because the site was released on Sept 8, soon after the Government's cooling measures, senior manager for Asia-Pacific research at Cushman & Wakefield Ong Kah Seng told The Straits Times.
'Home buyers are on the sidelines and developers are increasingly cautious in this period, which is less than two months from the announced measures,' he said.
He added that in the first half of this year, land prices for ECs reached record highs to average more than $300 psf.
The HDB said it will announce the successful bidder within two weeks.
Six bids for Pasir Ris executive condo site
By Harsha Jethnani
AN EXECUTIVE condominium (EC) site in Pasir Ris has drawn healthy interest, with six bids put in by developers by the time the tender closed yesterday.
The 15,142 sq m site, at the junction of Pasir Ris Drive 1 and Elias Road, is expected to yield about 320 housing units.
The top bidder was ChoiceHomes Investment and CEL Developments at $89.88 million or $263 per sq ft (psf).
Buying interest was strong when the first new EC to go on sale in five years, Esparina Residences near Buangkok MRT station, was launched earlier this month.
ECs are the grandest form of public housing and include some condo facilities. Like other HDB flats, they are subject to a minimum five-year occupation period. Then they can be sold only to Singaporeans and permanent residents. They become private property after 10 years, and can then be sold to foreigners.
The second highest bid for the Pasir Ris site, just a notch lower, was EL Development's $89.33 million or $261 psf.
The two lowest were below $80 million. Ecco Development's $61 million or $178 psf offer was the lowest.
Hoi Hup Realty, Sunway Developments and S.C. Wong Holdings jointly bid for the land at $78.87 million or $231 psf.
The bids show developers are fairly confident about the site, said executive director of CBRE Research Joseph Tan.
He added that the site is about 15 minutes' walk from White Sands mall and Pasir Ris MRT station and bus interchange.
Knight Frank senior manager of consultancy and research Png Poh Soon told The Straits Times that demand for ECs was still good, 'in particular for this site', given the favourable reception of nearby private condo NV Residences.
Mr Tan added: 'Given that NV Residences - a private condominium - has sold 400 units at the median price of $869 psf since September, there will be a market for this new EC project if it is priced at a differential of 20 to 25 per cent lower.' He expects the break-even cost for development to be $560 psf to $600 psf.
Consultants also say the bidding for the Pasir Ris site reflects growing caution in the property market.
Head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle in Singapore, Dr Chua Yang Liang, said developers have become more realistic given moderating market sentiment.
'When the market is bullish, the variation between the top and second bidders can be quite large,' said Dr Chua.
The relatively restrained bids may in part be because the site was released on Sept 8, soon after the Government's cooling measures, senior manager for Asia-Pacific research at Cushman & Wakefield Ong Kah Seng told The Straits Times.
'Home buyers are on the sidelines and developers are increasingly cautious in this period, which is less than two months from the announced measures,' he said.
He added that in the first half of this year, land prices for ECs reached record highs to average more than $300 psf.
The HDB said it will announce the successful bidder within two weeks.
ST : 9 residential projects from boutique firm
Oct 22, 2010
9 residential projects from boutique firm
About half of Oxley's planned units will be shoebox apartments
By Esther Teo
Units will range from studios of about 300 sq ft to penthouses of between 700 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft. Oxley CEO Ching Chiat Kwong (above) said there is demand from young professionals and immigrants. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
BOUTIQUE developer Oxley Holdings expects to launch up to nine new residential projects within the next six months, said chief executive Ching Chiat Kwong yesterday.
They will be mid-tier to high-end developments, either incorporating a retail element or supported by existing commercial centres nearby, with most having fewer than 50 flats each.
The projects will offer about 552 shop and residential units in all, with some to be built in areas that touch Stevens, Kovan, Holland and Braddell roads.
Units will range from studios of about 300 sq ft to penthouses of between 700 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft.
About half of the residential units will be so-called shoebox apartments of less than 500 sq ft, said Mr Ching, who was speaking to The Straits Times the day the firm launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the Singapore Exchange's Catalist board.
It will sell 224 million new shares at 38 cents each, but there will be no public tranche.
'We are providing a lifestyle niche concept preferably with commercial elements at the first storey to cater to the singles' lifestyle.
'Even if it doesn't have shops, the surrounding neighbourhood will have amenities,' he added.
Mr Ching is confident that the small-format units - Oxley is a prominent developer of this type of flat - will be well received as quantum prices will be affordable.
'Singapore will also be the next big financial city. There will be a lot of talent coming in and they will seek to buy or rent such units, so it can be sustainable even for an investor... to see through retirement,' he added.
Mr Ching said that Oxley Holdings expects 'very stable results' despite the recent market cooling measures, which he said were good as they prevented speculators from driving up prices.
'It's also good for developers as sellers have lower expectations of their selling price for land; or if they decide to go en bloc, it is likely to be more successful.'
Mr Ching said that while buying sentiment will be dampened, there was genuine demand from the growing ranks of young professionals and immigrants to sustain the market.
'For units that I price reasonably with an affordable quantum, provided together with a lifestyle element, the chances for success, for a good take-up of the project. are good,' he said.
Meanwhile, the IPO will raise about $81.2 million in net proceeds.
The cash will be used to partially finance the acquisition of five land sites already on its books, acquire new developmental sites and for working capital, Oxley said in a statement yesterday.
Oxley said also that it will look to expanding into industrial and commercial property or into overseas markets and to maintain a land bank big enough to support a three- to five-year development pipeline.
Oxley's fully sold Suites@Katong, Parc Somme and Loft@Rangoon have achieved total sales of $77 million.
Its Viva Vista project is 99 per cent sold while RV Point is 84 per cent sold, with the value of both projects priced at a total of $193 million, the firm said.
Oxley's shares will begin trading next Wednesday.
esthert@sph.com.sg
9 residential projects from boutique firm
About half of Oxley's planned units will be shoebox apartments
By Esther Teo
Units will range from studios of about 300 sq ft to penthouses of between 700 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft. Oxley CEO Ching Chiat Kwong (above) said there is demand from young professionals and immigrants. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
BOUTIQUE developer Oxley Holdings expects to launch up to nine new residential projects within the next six months, said chief executive Ching Chiat Kwong yesterday.
They will be mid-tier to high-end developments, either incorporating a retail element or supported by existing commercial centres nearby, with most having fewer than 50 flats each.
The projects will offer about 552 shop and residential units in all, with some to be built in areas that touch Stevens, Kovan, Holland and Braddell roads.
Units will range from studios of about 300 sq ft to penthouses of between 700 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft.
About half of the residential units will be so-called shoebox apartments of less than 500 sq ft, said Mr Ching, who was speaking to The Straits Times the day the firm launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the Singapore Exchange's Catalist board.
It will sell 224 million new shares at 38 cents each, but there will be no public tranche.
'We are providing a lifestyle niche concept preferably with commercial elements at the first storey to cater to the singles' lifestyle.
'Even if it doesn't have shops, the surrounding neighbourhood will have amenities,' he added.
Mr Ching is confident that the small-format units - Oxley is a prominent developer of this type of flat - will be well received as quantum prices will be affordable.
'Singapore will also be the next big financial city. There will be a lot of talent coming in and they will seek to buy or rent such units, so it can be sustainable even for an investor... to see through retirement,' he added.
Mr Ching said that Oxley Holdings expects 'very stable results' despite the recent market cooling measures, which he said were good as they prevented speculators from driving up prices.
'It's also good for developers as sellers have lower expectations of their selling price for land; or if they decide to go en bloc, it is likely to be more successful.'
Mr Ching said that while buying sentiment will be dampened, there was genuine demand from the growing ranks of young professionals and immigrants to sustain the market.
'For units that I price reasonably with an affordable quantum, provided together with a lifestyle element, the chances for success, for a good take-up of the project. are good,' he said.
Meanwhile, the IPO will raise about $81.2 million in net proceeds.
The cash will be used to partially finance the acquisition of five land sites already on its books, acquire new developmental sites and for working capital, Oxley said in a statement yesterday.
Oxley said also that it will look to expanding into industrial and commercial property or into overseas markets and to maintain a land bank big enough to support a three- to five-year development pipeline.
Oxley's fully sold Suites@Katong, Parc Somme and Loft@Rangoon have achieved total sales of $77 million.
Its Viva Vista project is 99 per cent sold while RV Point is 84 per cent sold, with the value of both projects priced at a total of $193 million, the firm said.
Oxley's shares will begin trading next Wednesday.
esthert@sph.com.sg
ST : New HDB chief's goals: Affordability, quality
Oct 22, 2010
New HDB chief's goals: Affordability, quality
ST FILE PHOTO
THE Housing Board will find innovative ways of keeping flats affordable while improving the quality and catering to the wide range of aspirations of its home buyers, said its new chief executive officer (CEO) Cheong Koon Hean.
Speaking on Wednesday at the first press conference in her new role, she said HDB 'has been doing a very good job... but there will always be challenges'.
'HDB deals with a very big customer base... with very different income levels and aspirations. One of the challenges is how we can do our best to meet these expectations as realistically as possible,' she said.
Mrs Cheong took over as CEO on Aug 1, replacing Mr Tay Kim Poh, who is now at the Ministry of National Development as its deputy secretary of development.
The move for Mrs Cheong, 53, comes at a time when housing has gained increasing importance for a public concerned with the affordability of homes.
She is a real estate industry veteran, having been CEO at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for the past six years.
In her time at URA, she led the development of Marina Bay and new areas such as Jurong Lake District, Kallang Riverside and Paya Lebar Central.
The former Colombo Plan scholarship holder has a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Architecture from Australia's Newcastle University, and a Master's of Science in Urban Development Planning from University College London.
Mrs Cheong said yesterday that beyond building the 'hardware' or physical homes, HDB also needs to think about the 'software', or how to make homes endearing for its people, 'to preserve hopes and memories'.
'That's a difficult challenge... but we want to build a vibrant community,' she said.
When asked to comment on HDB's role in the upcoming general election (GE), Mrs Cheong said: 'HDB always does its best, GE or no GE.
'We'll always monitor (the market) and we do our best to put housing within the reach of Singaporeans.'
New HDB chief's goals: Affordability, quality
ST FILE PHOTO
THE Housing Board will find innovative ways of keeping flats affordable while improving the quality and catering to the wide range of aspirations of its home buyers, said its new chief executive officer (CEO) Cheong Koon Hean.
Speaking on Wednesday at the first press conference in her new role, she said HDB 'has been doing a very good job... but there will always be challenges'.
'HDB deals with a very big customer base... with very different income levels and aspirations. One of the challenges is how we can do our best to meet these expectations as realistically as possible,' she said.
Mrs Cheong took over as CEO on Aug 1, replacing Mr Tay Kim Poh, who is now at the Ministry of National Development as its deputy secretary of development.
The move for Mrs Cheong, 53, comes at a time when housing has gained increasing importance for a public concerned with the affordability of homes.
She is a real estate industry veteran, having been CEO at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for the past six years.
In her time at URA, she led the development of Marina Bay and new areas such as Jurong Lake District, Kallang Riverside and Paya Lebar Central.
The former Colombo Plan scholarship holder has a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Architecture from Australia's Newcastle University, and a Master's of Science in Urban Development Planning from University College London.
Mrs Cheong said yesterday that beyond building the 'hardware' or physical homes, HDB also needs to think about the 'software', or how to make homes endearing for its people, 'to preserve hopes and memories'.
'That's a difficult challenge... but we want to build a vibrant community,' she said.
When asked to comment on HDB's role in the upcoming general election (GE), Mrs Cheong said: 'HDB always does its best, GE or no GE.
'We'll always monitor (the market) and we do our best to put housing within the reach of Singaporeans.'
ST : Legal tussle over Jobs Credit money
Oct 22, 2010
Legal tussle over Jobs Credit money
CKH and Bayshore Park MCST suing each other over $13,917 payout
By Cheryl Ong
Bayshore Park condominium's MCST says it is entitled to the $13,917 as it has been paying the salaries and CPF contributions of the site staff. The lawsuit is ongoing. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
IN WHAT is believed to be the first case of its kind, a legal dispute has arisen between two parties over who should pocket the money from the Jobs Credit Scheme, launched by the Government last year to keep workers employed.
Condominium manager CKH Strata Management and Bayshore Park condominium's Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) are suing each other over the money. Each claims to be the 'true employer' of 13 site staff working at the Upper East Coast condo.
At stake is $13,917 that CKH had received from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) during the economic downturn last year for retaining its workers.
At the opening hearing on Wednesday at the Subordinate Courts, Bayshore Park's MCST said it is entitled to the $13,917 from the Jobs Credit Scheme as it has been paying the salaries and Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions of the site staff. CKH is thus a facilitator and should not have kept the Jobs Credit Scheme payment.
In CKH's defence, its managing director Chan Kok Hong said he decides on the workers' 13th-month bonuses and CPF contributions are made in his company's name. 'The Jobs Credit Scheme was implemented to retain employees, not to reduce the cost of hiring employees,' said Mr Chan at his cross-examination.
The dispute began when Mr Chan sued Bayshore Park for $55,742 in unpaid management fees from April to June last year, when CKH's contract with Bayshore Park expired.
Bayshore Park counter-sued for $83,705 and damages. The $83,705 includes the Jobs Credit money and $48,778 for 59 fire-rated doors it said CKH had overcharged for in 2008.
In 2007, CKH had wrongly installed doors that were not built to contain smoke and fire at stairwells leading into the condo carparks. It agreed to absorb the $33,650 in costs, and charged the condo $79,237 for fire-rated doors from Good Care Building Services Contractor.
However, the MCST discovered that CKH had actually bought doors from another company with a much lower quote.
Mr Chan said the MCST had agreed on a quotation for the fire-rated doors at an annual general meeting in December 2008, before he found a lower quote at another company.
The extra cash went into settling the losses his company sustained from installing the wrong doors at the condo. CKH said it did not profit from the incident.
The Jobs Credit Scheme was introduced last year as a quarterly cash payment from Iras for every Singaporean and permanent resident on a company's CPF payroll. The grant is 12 per cent of the first $2,500 of a worker's pay each month, and was designed to help employers retain their staff in the downturn.
By June 30, more than $4.3 billion had been paid to employers through the scheme.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
ongyiern@sph.com.sg
Legal tussle over Jobs Credit money
CKH and Bayshore Park MCST suing each other over $13,917 payout
By Cheryl Ong
Bayshore Park condominium's MCST says it is entitled to the $13,917 as it has been paying the salaries and CPF contributions of the site staff. The lawsuit is ongoing. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
IN WHAT is believed to be the first case of its kind, a legal dispute has arisen between two parties over who should pocket the money from the Jobs Credit Scheme, launched by the Government last year to keep workers employed.
Condominium manager CKH Strata Management and Bayshore Park condominium's Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) are suing each other over the money. Each claims to be the 'true employer' of 13 site staff working at the Upper East Coast condo.
At stake is $13,917 that CKH had received from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) during the economic downturn last year for retaining its workers.
At the opening hearing on Wednesday at the Subordinate Courts, Bayshore Park's MCST said it is entitled to the $13,917 from the Jobs Credit Scheme as it has been paying the salaries and Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions of the site staff. CKH is thus a facilitator and should not have kept the Jobs Credit Scheme payment.
In CKH's defence, its managing director Chan Kok Hong said he decides on the workers' 13th-month bonuses and CPF contributions are made in his company's name. 'The Jobs Credit Scheme was implemented to retain employees, not to reduce the cost of hiring employees,' said Mr Chan at his cross-examination.
The dispute began when Mr Chan sued Bayshore Park for $55,742 in unpaid management fees from April to June last year, when CKH's contract with Bayshore Park expired.
Bayshore Park counter-sued for $83,705 and damages. The $83,705 includes the Jobs Credit money and $48,778 for 59 fire-rated doors it said CKH had overcharged for in 2008.
In 2007, CKH had wrongly installed doors that were not built to contain smoke and fire at stairwells leading into the condo carparks. It agreed to absorb the $33,650 in costs, and charged the condo $79,237 for fire-rated doors from Good Care Building Services Contractor.
However, the MCST discovered that CKH had actually bought doors from another company with a much lower quote.
Mr Chan said the MCST had agreed on a quotation for the fire-rated doors at an annual general meeting in December 2008, before he found a lower quote at another company.
The extra cash went into settling the losses his company sustained from installing the wrong doors at the condo. CKH said it did not profit from the incident.
The Jobs Credit Scheme was introduced last year as a quarterly cash payment from Iras for every Singaporean and permanent resident on a company's CPF payroll. The grant is 12 per cent of the first $2,500 of a worker's pay each month, and was designed to help employers retain their staff in the downturn.
By June 30, more than $4.3 billion had been paid to employers through the scheme.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
ongyiern@sph.com.sg
ST : Law firm to pay more for clients' loss
Oct 21, 2010
Law firm to pay more for clients' loss
Compensation for condo foul-up must be pegged to market price: Judge
By K.C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent
A law firm's one-day delay cost its clients, Mr Ong Hien Yeow and his wife, the chance to buy a $3.5m condo unit at The Seafront On Meyer in Meyer Road. -- ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
A COUPLE who sued a law firm for blowing their chance to buy a $3.5 million flat will get compensation pegged to the market price of the property at the time of the court hearing in 2008.
The High Court ruling means the law firm will have to pay Mr Ong Hien Yeow and his wife a sum that would have enabled them to buy a similar unit had their plans to buy the flat not been derailed by the firm, Central Chambers LLC.
Mr Ong had wanted to buy the unit at The Seafront On Meyer in Meyer Road in 2007. Central Chambers was a day late in exercising his option, and failed to meet the April 17, 2007 deadline.
The developers, CRL Realty, refused to sell because of the delay. The couple, who had wanted the flat as their matrimonial home, sued the law firm for the loss caused, after futile efforts to buy an alternative unit.
Previously, the lower court had held that the amount payable should be pegged to the time when the law firm botched the couple's plans, in April 2007.
The ruling capped a case with extra-ordinary circumstances.
Ordinarily, it would be unusual for a significant difference to occur when damages are assessed.
But in this case, there was a huge increase in the value of the unit between the contract date in April 2007, when it was valued at $3.53 million, and the start of the court assessment hearings from April 2008. In May that year, the value of the property had soared to $5.38 million. Central Chambers acknowledged its fault in a November 2007 court hearing, and the issue was how much the couple should be paid in damages.
As this was a negligence claim, insurers for the law firm moved in for the hearing before a High Court Assistant Registrar in 2008 to assess the sum.
Lawyer Imran Khwaja from Tan Rajah & Cheah, acting for the insurers, argued the price should be pegged to within a reasonable time from when the fault occurred in April 2007.
But Senior Counsel Vinodh Coomara-swamy from Shook Lin & Bok, representing the Ongs, countered that the sum to be paid should be the $1.85 million difference between the original $3.53 million asking price for the unit in April 2007 and the new $5.38 million price at which the developer re-released the unit on the market in May 2008. Such a sum would take in the 'current market price of equivalent units in the same development', court documents said.
An assistant registrar in September 2008 awarded the couple about $418,000. This sum was based on the difference in price of the flat within about two months of the law firm's mistake. Both sides appealed against the decision.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu, in a reserved judgment published yesterday, ruled that the quantum be based on the price of the unit during the time when the court hearings took place, between April and September 2008.
He ordered the case to be remitted to the High Court assistant registrar for the damages to be re-assessed as directed.
vijayan@sph.com.sg
Law firm to pay more for clients' loss
Compensation for condo foul-up must be pegged to market price: Judge
By K.C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent
A law firm's one-day delay cost its clients, Mr Ong Hien Yeow and his wife, the chance to buy a $3.5m condo unit at The Seafront On Meyer in Meyer Road. -- ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
A COUPLE who sued a law firm for blowing their chance to buy a $3.5 million flat will get compensation pegged to the market price of the property at the time of the court hearing in 2008.
The High Court ruling means the law firm will have to pay Mr Ong Hien Yeow and his wife a sum that would have enabled them to buy a similar unit had their plans to buy the flat not been derailed by the firm, Central Chambers LLC.
Mr Ong had wanted to buy the unit at The Seafront On Meyer in Meyer Road in 2007. Central Chambers was a day late in exercising his option, and failed to meet the April 17, 2007 deadline.
The developers, CRL Realty, refused to sell because of the delay. The couple, who had wanted the flat as their matrimonial home, sued the law firm for the loss caused, after futile efforts to buy an alternative unit.
Previously, the lower court had held that the amount payable should be pegged to the time when the law firm botched the couple's plans, in April 2007.
The ruling capped a case with extra-ordinary circumstances.
Ordinarily, it would be unusual for a significant difference to occur when damages are assessed.
But in this case, there was a huge increase in the value of the unit between the contract date in April 2007, when it was valued at $3.53 million, and the start of the court assessment hearings from April 2008. In May that year, the value of the property had soared to $5.38 million. Central Chambers acknowledged its fault in a November 2007 court hearing, and the issue was how much the couple should be paid in damages.
As this was a negligence claim, insurers for the law firm moved in for the hearing before a High Court Assistant Registrar in 2008 to assess the sum.
Lawyer Imran Khwaja from Tan Rajah & Cheah, acting for the insurers, argued the price should be pegged to within a reasonable time from when the fault occurred in April 2007.
But Senior Counsel Vinodh Coomara-swamy from Shook Lin & Bok, representing the Ongs, countered that the sum to be paid should be the $1.85 million difference between the original $3.53 million asking price for the unit in April 2007 and the new $5.38 million price at which the developer re-released the unit on the market in May 2008. Such a sum would take in the 'current market price of equivalent units in the same development', court documents said.
An assistant registrar in September 2008 awarded the couple about $418,000. This sum was based on the difference in price of the flat within about two months of the law firm's mistake. Both sides appealed against the decision.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu, in a reserved judgment published yesterday, ruled that the quantum be based on the price of the unit during the time when the court hearings took place, between April and September 2008.
He ordered the case to be remitted to the High Court assistant registrar for the damages to be re-assessed as directed.
vijayan@sph.com.sg
Thursday, October 21, 2010
ST : HDB allays fears it may block sales
Oct 21, 2010
HDB allays fears it may block sales
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
THE Housing Board (HDB) yesterday said that the additional disclosures it is requiring from flat sellers are meant to help them make responsible decisions, not block the sale of flats.
Earlier this week, the HDB introduced a seven-day cooling-off period which sellers must go through, as well as a requirement to submit an enhanced 'resale checklist'.
The new checklist requires those wanting to sell their HDB flats from Nov 1 to disclose certain information.
Flat sellers will have to state their next housing arrangement, and those buying another HDB flat will have to work out the sales proceeds of their current flat and submit a financial plan for buying the next flat.
This has raised concerns about whether such disclosures by home buyers could be a basis for HDB to reject sale applications. HDB could disagree with the financial plans, for instance.
The resale checklist was first introduced in 2008.
Responding to queries yesterday, HDB said the objective of the enhanced checklist and financial plan was to assist sellers in making an informed decision.
'More importantly, it is to help sellers plan ahead and consider where they would be moving to after they sell their flats. It is not meant to make the resale process unduly onerous or to block the sale of the flat,' it said.
'However, it is the sellers' and their agents' responsibility to work out the financial plan and to draw their own conclusions on whether the seller would have proper alternative accommodation after the sale of the flat,' it added.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said it was unlikely that HDB would intervene in practice. 'This form is just a thought process for HDB sellers, to see roughly whether or not they can afford the next purchase,' he said.
Home seller Victor Ching, 52, who recently put his Yishun flat up for sale to test the market, felt that the checklist was slightly troublesome but a good thing.
'Many buyers tend to spend the money too quickly after they sell their homes, but they don't know how to calculate how much they actually earn from the sale after the deductions, like CPF (Central Provident Fund) and paying for the next flat,' he said.
Another potential seller, Ms Teh Ailin, in her 30s and living in Sengkang, noted that the information required was 'quite personal', but agreed that it was justified as she would have to do those sums anyway.
Also, some of the information required, such as the seller's monthly income, is already provided to the HDB.
HDB provides a financial calculator on its website for flat sellers to determine their sale proceeds and financial plan.
Sellers are asked for information such as the price of the flat, their gross monthly income and expenditure to determine the amount of monthly repayment for their new flat.
After sellers have submitted the checklist and waited for seven days, they can grant the option to purchase to the buyer.
The cooling-off period and the enhanced checklist came after MPs called for such a provision during a recent Parliament sitting.
MP for Hong Kah GRC Ang Mong Seng told The Straits Times he fully supported the changes as he had seen appeals from constituents who sold their flats because of bad financial advice or pressure to sell their homes fast.
'I've encountered aged home owners who sell their flats to settle debts in the family, then they end up with no money left to buy the next house,' he said.
West Coast GRC MP Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, said he had come across similar situations where residents who had already sold their flats were desperately looking for new accommodation, claiming they had been misled by agents.
'I think the checklist helps in terms of making sure that anyone who sells is clearly aware of how they're going to get the next flat, and how they are going to finance it,' he added.
Additional reporting by Cheryl Ong
HDB allays fears it may block sales
By Jessica Cheam, Housing Correspondent
THE Housing Board (HDB) yesterday said that the additional disclosures it is requiring from flat sellers are meant to help them make responsible decisions, not block the sale of flats.
Earlier this week, the HDB introduced a seven-day cooling-off period which sellers must go through, as well as a requirement to submit an enhanced 'resale checklist'.
The new checklist requires those wanting to sell their HDB flats from Nov 1 to disclose certain information.
Flat sellers will have to state their next housing arrangement, and those buying another HDB flat will have to work out the sales proceeds of their current flat and submit a financial plan for buying the next flat.
This has raised concerns about whether such disclosures by home buyers could be a basis for HDB to reject sale applications. HDB could disagree with the financial plans, for instance.
The resale checklist was first introduced in 2008.
Responding to queries yesterday, HDB said the objective of the enhanced checklist and financial plan was to assist sellers in making an informed decision.
'More importantly, it is to help sellers plan ahead and consider where they would be moving to after they sell their flats. It is not meant to make the resale process unduly onerous or to block the sale of the flat,' it said.
'However, it is the sellers' and their agents' responsibility to work out the financial plan and to draw their own conclusions on whether the seller would have proper alternative accommodation after the sale of the flat,' it added.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said it was unlikely that HDB would intervene in practice. 'This form is just a thought process for HDB sellers, to see roughly whether or not they can afford the next purchase,' he said.
Home seller Victor Ching, 52, who recently put his Yishun flat up for sale to test the market, felt that the checklist was slightly troublesome but a good thing.
'Many buyers tend to spend the money too quickly after they sell their homes, but they don't know how to calculate how much they actually earn from the sale after the deductions, like CPF (Central Provident Fund) and paying for the next flat,' he said.
Another potential seller, Ms Teh Ailin, in her 30s and living in Sengkang, noted that the information required was 'quite personal', but agreed that it was justified as she would have to do those sums anyway.
Also, some of the information required, such as the seller's monthly income, is already provided to the HDB.
HDB provides a financial calculator on its website for flat sellers to determine their sale proceeds and financial plan.
Sellers are asked for information such as the price of the flat, their gross monthly income and expenditure to determine the amount of monthly repayment for their new flat.
After sellers have submitted the checklist and waited for seven days, they can grant the option to purchase to the buyer.
The cooling-off period and the enhanced checklist came after MPs called for such a provision during a recent Parliament sitting.
MP for Hong Kah GRC Ang Mong Seng told The Straits Times he fully supported the changes as he had seen appeals from constituents who sold their flats because of bad financial advice or pressure to sell their homes fast.
'I've encountered aged home owners who sell their flats to settle debts in the family, then they end up with no money left to buy the next house,' he said.
West Coast GRC MP Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, said he had come across similar situations where residents who had already sold their flats were desperately looking for new accommodation, claiming they had been misled by agents.
'I think the checklist helps in terms of making sure that anyone who sells is clearly aware of how they're going to get the next flat, and how they are going to finance it,' he added.
Additional reporting by Cheryl Ong
ST : Number of property agents set to fall
Oct 21, 2010
Number of property agents set to fall
Stricter standards from sector's first regulator to target errant agents
By Jessica Cheam & Esther Teo
FEWER property agents will be plying the trade from next year, but they will - hopefully - be better informed.
The property industry is bracing itself for a mass cull of estate agents as the industry's first ever regulator, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), begins operations tomorrow.
Agency bosses estimate that the current national 30,000-strong pool of agents will shrink by a third to about 20,000 overnight because of stricter standards laid down by the new council.
The new regulations mainly involve the strict enforcement of industry exams, and are aimed at ridding the industry of errant, sub-standard agents who have tarred its reputation.
Industry watchers expect the rising number of complaints in recent years to decline as the quality of agents rises.
Agencies are expected to submit a final list of names of agents who make the cut to the CEA by midnight tomorrow.
Registration with the council, which comes under the Ministry of National Development (MND), will become mandatory from Jan 1.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said his firm's headcount will slide from 6,000 to about 4,000.
HSR chief executive Patrick Liew said his firm will lose about half of its 7,000 agents.
It is the same story islandwide: Dennis Wee Group director Chris Koh said its number of agents will fall from 5,000 to 3,000, while ERA Asia Pacific will lose almost half of its agents, falling from 8,000 to 4,200. At OrangeTee, the 3,600 agent pool will shrink to 2,500.
The CEA was set up after legislation to regulate property agents for the first time was passed in Parliament last month. It was a milestone for the real estate sector here.
For many years, consumers had lobbied for greater regulation of an industry dogged by a rising number of complaints against agents who were attracted by Singapore's periodic property booms.
Complaints against real estate firms and agents shot up almost 60 per cent in recent years: from 670 in 2005 to 1,070 last year, according to the Consumers Association of Singapore.
To make the cut, agents must have passed existing industry examinations. Those who have not must have brokered at least three deals in the past two years. The latter group are given more time to pass the exams.
Agents who fail to meet these criteria will be treated like new applicants who must take new courses and a stricter exam set by the CEA.
Dennis Wee's Mr Koh said the agencies had been prepared for the new regime 'for some time' as a result of frequent updates from the MND.
'The quantity of agents will go down, but at least the quality will go up, because for the first time, all agents have to pass an exam before being able to practise in the property market,' he said.
HSR's Mr Liew noted that smaller to mid-sized agencies would have to spend money to ensure their systems were up to scratch to meet CEA standards.
Further industry consolidation is also expected. Already, C&H Realty has merged with its sister company C&H Properties to reduce overhead costs.
'There will be less competition in the industry now, which will be a good thing as service standards should go up,' said C&H Realty managing director Albert Lu.
The existing Institute of Estate Agents (IEA) and Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies (SAEA) will still operate.
Mr Ismail, who is also the IEA president, said the institute, which has about 2,000 property agents as members, will apply to be an approved trainer to offer training for new recruits to property agencies.
SAEA chief executive Tan Tee Khoon said the body, with the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers, will continue its enhanced accreditation scheme, which will complement the Government's mandatory licensing scheme.
Property agents interviewed welcomed the regulation of the industry, saying that for too long, inexperienced agents or part-timers made promises they could not deliver, and tarnished the profession.
Property agent Jasmine Png, 29, said agents who are experienced will not be affected by the rules. 'The regulations will make sure only the professionals make the cut,' she added.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
esthert@sph.com.sg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHO WILL MAKE THE CUT?
· PropNex: 4,000 of its 6,000 agents
· HSR: 3,500 of its 7,000 agents
· Dennis Wee: 3,000 of its 5,000 agents
· ERA Asia Pacific: 4,200 of its 8,000 agents
· OrangeTee: 2,500 of its 3,600 agents
Number of property agents set to fall
Stricter standards from sector's first regulator to target errant agents
By Jessica Cheam & Esther Teo
FEWER property agents will be plying the trade from next year, but they will - hopefully - be better informed.
The property industry is bracing itself for a mass cull of estate agents as the industry's first ever regulator, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), begins operations tomorrow.
Agency bosses estimate that the current national 30,000-strong pool of agents will shrink by a third to about 20,000 overnight because of stricter standards laid down by the new council.
The new regulations mainly involve the strict enforcement of industry exams, and are aimed at ridding the industry of errant, sub-standard agents who have tarred its reputation.
Industry watchers expect the rising number of complaints in recent years to decline as the quality of agents rises.
Agencies are expected to submit a final list of names of agents who make the cut to the CEA by midnight tomorrow.
Registration with the council, which comes under the Ministry of National Development (MND), will become mandatory from Jan 1.
PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said his firm's headcount will slide from 6,000 to about 4,000.
HSR chief executive Patrick Liew said his firm will lose about half of its 7,000 agents.
It is the same story islandwide: Dennis Wee Group director Chris Koh said its number of agents will fall from 5,000 to 3,000, while ERA Asia Pacific will lose almost half of its agents, falling from 8,000 to 4,200. At OrangeTee, the 3,600 agent pool will shrink to 2,500.
The CEA was set up after legislation to regulate property agents for the first time was passed in Parliament last month. It was a milestone for the real estate sector here.
For many years, consumers had lobbied for greater regulation of an industry dogged by a rising number of complaints against agents who were attracted by Singapore's periodic property booms.
Complaints against real estate firms and agents shot up almost 60 per cent in recent years: from 670 in 2005 to 1,070 last year, according to the Consumers Association of Singapore.
To make the cut, agents must have passed existing industry examinations. Those who have not must have brokered at least three deals in the past two years. The latter group are given more time to pass the exams.
Agents who fail to meet these criteria will be treated like new applicants who must take new courses and a stricter exam set by the CEA.
Dennis Wee's Mr Koh said the agencies had been prepared for the new regime 'for some time' as a result of frequent updates from the MND.
'The quantity of agents will go down, but at least the quality will go up, because for the first time, all agents have to pass an exam before being able to practise in the property market,' he said.
HSR's Mr Liew noted that smaller to mid-sized agencies would have to spend money to ensure their systems were up to scratch to meet CEA standards.
Further industry consolidation is also expected. Already, C&H Realty has merged with its sister company C&H Properties to reduce overhead costs.
'There will be less competition in the industry now, which will be a good thing as service standards should go up,' said C&H Realty managing director Albert Lu.
The existing Institute of Estate Agents (IEA) and Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies (SAEA) will still operate.
Mr Ismail, who is also the IEA president, said the institute, which has about 2,000 property agents as members, will apply to be an approved trainer to offer training for new recruits to property agencies.
SAEA chief executive Tan Tee Khoon said the body, with the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers, will continue its enhanced accreditation scheme, which will complement the Government's mandatory licensing scheme.
Property agents interviewed welcomed the regulation of the industry, saying that for too long, inexperienced agents or part-timers made promises they could not deliver, and tarnished the profession.
Property agent Jasmine Png, 29, said agents who are experienced will not be affected by the rules. 'The regulations will make sure only the professionals make the cut,' she added.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
esthert@sph.com.sg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHO WILL MAKE THE CUT?
· PropNex: 4,000 of its 6,000 agents
· HSR: 3,500 of its 7,000 agents
· Dennis Wee: 3,000 of its 5,000 agents
· ERA Asia Pacific: 4,200 of its 8,000 agents
· OrangeTee: 2,500 of its 3,600 agents
ST : Impact of new landed property rules 'negligible'
Oct 20, 2010
Impact of new landed property rules 'negligible'
Foreigners, PRs make up just small part of this housing sector: Experts
By Esther Teo
PLANNED changes to rules on foreign ownership of landed property are not expected to make much of a splash, with demand and prices for these high-end homes set to stay the same, experts said.
Foreigners and permanent residents (PRs) make up only a small portion of the landed housing market - an average of 6.6 per cent of total transactions over the last 10 years according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
Any ripple effect from the new rules would be 'negligible', the experts added.
One of the proposed changes set out in the Residential Property (Amendment) Bill, introduced in Parliament on Monday, states that home owners with landed property would have to dispose of their property within two years if they give up their Singapore permanent residency or citizenship status.
Failure to do so could see owners faced with a fine not exceeding $20,000 or a three-year jail term, or both.
PRs who are uncertain about where they want to be based permanently, however, might now choose to purchase a condo rather than a landed property as doing so would come without such obligations, the experts added.
On Monday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan released figures showing that locals make up the bulk of private home buyers in Singapore. PRs made up 13 per cent and foreigners 12 per cent of sales in the second quarter, respectively.
Mr Ong Teck Hui, Credo Real Estate head of research and consultancy, said that since the landed housing market was primarily driven by locals, the impact of the new rules would be insignificant.
'A PR who is interested in purchasing a landed home is unlikely to be deterred unless he has a sense of uncertainty over staying on in Singapore,' he added.
Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han said the changes served to 'tie up the loose ends', bringing the existing Act - introduced in 1973 - in line with housing policies as it prevented foreigners from speculating in Singapore's property market.
OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy Tan Kok Keong said the rules might provide a push for PRs to buy high-end condos instead as PRs who could afford landed homes were affluent.
He said that foreigners made up only a small segment of the landed housing market as the Government had been quite strict with them owning such properties. Foreigners need permission from the Land Dealings (Approval) Unit (LDAU) before they can own landed property.
On mainland Singapore, the main criteria are that they are PRs and that they make an adequate economic contribution. However, non-PR foreigners may buy landed homes at Sentosa Cove, subject to LDAU approval.
Usually, foreigners may buy landed homes not exceeding 15,000 sq ft in land area. They may, at any one time, own just one landed home in Singapore and it must be for owner occupation only.
On the mainland, foreigners also have to hold the property for at least three years before selling. There is no minimum holding period for Sentosa Cove.
CBRE said PRs were responsible for 165 - or 5.5 per cent - of 3,007 landed home transactions from Jan 1 to Sept 9.
This figure ranged from a low of 4.4 per cent in 2000 to a high of 6.8 per cent in 2006 over the past 10 years.
Most of the PRs bought terrace houses this year, with the highest number of landed home transactions taking place in District 15 - which includes Katong, Telok Kurau and East Coast Road - followed by Districts 10 and 19.
esthert@sph.com.sg
Impact of new landed property rules 'negligible'
Foreigners, PRs make up just small part of this housing sector: Experts
By Esther Teo
PLANNED changes to rules on foreign ownership of landed property are not expected to make much of a splash, with demand and prices for these high-end homes set to stay the same, experts said.
Foreigners and permanent residents (PRs) make up only a small portion of the landed housing market - an average of 6.6 per cent of total transactions over the last 10 years according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
Any ripple effect from the new rules would be 'negligible', the experts added.
One of the proposed changes set out in the Residential Property (Amendment) Bill, introduced in Parliament on Monday, states that home owners with landed property would have to dispose of their property within two years if they give up their Singapore permanent residency or citizenship status.
Failure to do so could see owners faced with a fine not exceeding $20,000 or a three-year jail term, or both.
PRs who are uncertain about where they want to be based permanently, however, might now choose to purchase a condo rather than a landed property as doing so would come without such obligations, the experts added.
On Monday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan released figures showing that locals make up the bulk of private home buyers in Singapore. PRs made up 13 per cent and foreigners 12 per cent of sales in the second quarter, respectively.
Mr Ong Teck Hui, Credo Real Estate head of research and consultancy, said that since the landed housing market was primarily driven by locals, the impact of the new rules would be insignificant.
'A PR who is interested in purchasing a landed home is unlikely to be deterred unless he has a sense of uncertainty over staying on in Singapore,' he added.
Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han said the changes served to 'tie up the loose ends', bringing the existing Act - introduced in 1973 - in line with housing policies as it prevented foreigners from speculating in Singapore's property market.
OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy Tan Kok Keong said the rules might provide a push for PRs to buy high-end condos instead as PRs who could afford landed homes were affluent.
He said that foreigners made up only a small segment of the landed housing market as the Government had been quite strict with them owning such properties. Foreigners need permission from the Land Dealings (Approval) Unit (LDAU) before they can own landed property.
On mainland Singapore, the main criteria are that they are PRs and that they make an adequate economic contribution. However, non-PR foreigners may buy landed homes at Sentosa Cove, subject to LDAU approval.
Usually, foreigners may buy landed homes not exceeding 15,000 sq ft in land area. They may, at any one time, own just one landed home in Singapore and it must be for owner occupation only.
On the mainland, foreigners also have to hold the property for at least three years before selling. There is no minimum holding period for Sentosa Cove.
CBRE said PRs were responsible for 165 - or 5.5 per cent - of 3,007 landed home transactions from Jan 1 to Sept 9.
This figure ranged from a low of 4.4 per cent in 2000 to a high of 6.8 per cent in 2006 over the past 10 years.
Most of the PRs bought terrace houses this year, with the highest number of landed home transactions taking place in District 15 - which includes Katong, Telok Kurau and East Coast Road - followed by Districts 10 and 19.
esthert@sph.com.sg
ST : Work starts on medical complex with hotel
Oct 19, 2010
Work starts on medical complex with hotel
230-room hotel will cater to foreign patients
By Salma Khalik
A PRIVATELY run medical complex in Farrer Park will be up by early 2013 - about two years later than planned.
Connexion, as it has been named, will comprise the 189 clinics of Farrer Medical Centre, the 220-bed Farrer Park Hospital and the 230-room hotel called One Farrer for foreign patients here for day treatment, their families and other guests.
The $800 million complex will sit atop the Farrer Park MRT station.
It is the baby of a group of doctors who want to set up their own outfit to break Parkway Group's near-stranglehold on private health-care here.
They are also eyeing a slice of the regional medical pie: Singapore expects to treat a million foreign patients a year by the middle of this decade, adding about $3 billion to the economy and creating 13,000 more jobs.
That the 40 doctors, who now have practices in Parkway's hospitals, see an opportunity is clear. It is what spurred each of them to put up $1 million each - three to four months' earnings - into Connexion.
But along the way, infighting landed the group in the courts and delayed work on Connexion.
Parkway is the biggest player in the foreign-patient market. The group, majority-owned by Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, owns Mt Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and Parkway East, with a fourth, 350-bed facility coming up in Novena in 2012.
Other than Raffles Hospital which hires its own doctors, the 'private' scene here is made up mainly of independent doctors using the facilities of the Parkway hospitals, the Mission-run Mount Alvernia and Thomson Medical Centre.
Some years back, Parkway's ties with some of its independent specialists hit a low when its hospitals set about monitoring standards. Things got worse when Parkway set up its own specialist services such as its eye centre, which its independent tenants saw as competition.
An attempt by two doctors to provide cheaper day-surgery facilities in Paragon and Camden folded last year, after bleeding to the tune of $2 million in two years.
The Farrer Park project also looked doomed when internal bickering over the running of the project descended into legal action that took nine months of litigation to untangle.
With the dust from that settled, only 22 doctors are left from the group of 40. With their two Indonesian partners, they bought out the other side.
'The schism was between those who want to practise and the others. We were not interested to sell and were finding every means to keep the project,' said cardiologist Maurice Choo, 60, who led the triumphant faction that wants to focus on practising.
Work on Connexion has begun, with the above-ground work expected to start next month.
Dr Choo said they plan to 'disrupt the market' with lower prices by doing more day surgery so patients do not need to spend a single night in hospital; in-patients will, however, be able to pick from suites, and single and four-bedded rooms.
Professor Euston Quah, head of economics at the Nanyang Technological University, thinks the group may just succeed. 'This independent hospital is going to put pressure on prices.'
Dr Francis Seow-Choen, a surgeon in private practice who is not in the group developing Connexion, expects a glut in clinic space. Novena Medical Centre is standing half empty, but this may change when Parkway's fourth hospital opens nearby.
Dr Lam Pin Min, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Health, is more optimistic. 'If the projection for the number of medical tourists and its potential growth in the next five to 10 years is anything to go by, this private hospital will meet the anticipated increase in demand.'
Added Prof Quah: 'With more private hospitals and increasing competition, prices will come down...' This would be good for locals too, he said.
salma@sph.com.sg
Work starts on medical complex with hotel
230-room hotel will cater to foreign patients
By Salma Khalik
A PRIVATELY run medical complex in Farrer Park will be up by early 2013 - about two years later than planned.
Connexion, as it has been named, will comprise the 189 clinics of Farrer Medical Centre, the 220-bed Farrer Park Hospital and the 230-room hotel called One Farrer for foreign patients here for day treatment, their families and other guests.
The $800 million complex will sit atop the Farrer Park MRT station.
It is the baby of a group of doctors who want to set up their own outfit to break Parkway Group's near-stranglehold on private health-care here.
They are also eyeing a slice of the regional medical pie: Singapore expects to treat a million foreign patients a year by the middle of this decade, adding about $3 billion to the economy and creating 13,000 more jobs.
That the 40 doctors, who now have practices in Parkway's hospitals, see an opportunity is clear. It is what spurred each of them to put up $1 million each - three to four months' earnings - into Connexion.
But along the way, infighting landed the group in the courts and delayed work on Connexion.
Parkway is the biggest player in the foreign-patient market. The group, majority-owned by Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, owns Mt Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and Parkway East, with a fourth, 350-bed facility coming up in Novena in 2012.
Other than Raffles Hospital which hires its own doctors, the 'private' scene here is made up mainly of independent doctors using the facilities of the Parkway hospitals, the Mission-run Mount Alvernia and Thomson Medical Centre.
Some years back, Parkway's ties with some of its independent specialists hit a low when its hospitals set about monitoring standards. Things got worse when Parkway set up its own specialist services such as its eye centre, which its independent tenants saw as competition.
An attempt by two doctors to provide cheaper day-surgery facilities in Paragon and Camden folded last year, after bleeding to the tune of $2 million in two years.
The Farrer Park project also looked doomed when internal bickering over the running of the project descended into legal action that took nine months of litigation to untangle.
With the dust from that settled, only 22 doctors are left from the group of 40. With their two Indonesian partners, they bought out the other side.
'The schism was between those who want to practise and the others. We were not interested to sell and were finding every means to keep the project,' said cardiologist Maurice Choo, 60, who led the triumphant faction that wants to focus on practising.
Work on Connexion has begun, with the above-ground work expected to start next month.
Dr Choo said they plan to 'disrupt the market' with lower prices by doing more day surgery so patients do not need to spend a single night in hospital; in-patients will, however, be able to pick from suites, and single and four-bedded rooms.
Professor Euston Quah, head of economics at the Nanyang Technological University, thinks the group may just succeed. 'This independent hospital is going to put pressure on prices.'
Dr Francis Seow-Choen, a surgeon in private practice who is not in the group developing Connexion, expects a glut in clinic space. Novena Medical Centre is standing half empty, but this may change when Parkway's fourth hospital opens nearby.
Dr Lam Pin Min, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Health, is more optimistic. 'If the projection for the number of medical tourists and its potential growth in the next five to 10 years is anything to go by, this private hospital will meet the anticipated increase in demand.'
Added Prof Quah: 'With more private hospitals and increasing competition, prices will come down...' This would be good for locals too, he said.
salma@sph.com.sg
ST : Foreign landed home owners: new rules
Oct 19, 2010
Foreign landed home owners: new rules
PRs, citizens who give up status have to sell property within 2 years
By Jessica Cheam
HOME owners with that prized landed property address may have to dispose of their property within two years if they give up their Singapore permanent residency or citizenship status.
Failure to do so could see owners faced with a fine not exceeding $20,000 or a three-year jail term, or both.
There is no such requirement currently. This new rule is one of the proposed changes set out in the Residential Property (Amendment) Bill, introduced in Parliament yesterday. If passed, the new Bill will also stiffen penalties.
The Act, first introduced in 1973, imposes restrictions on foreign ownership of restricted properties, namely landed homes, strata-landed housing and vacant residential land.
Foreigners - who must be permanent residents in this case - must get approval from the Singapore Land Authority before buying such 'restricted' properties.
The penalties have not been revised since 1974. The new Bill will introduce harsher penalties for those who breach the rules.
Under the Act, foreign buyers can only purchase one landed home for owner-occupation and cannot rent it out.
He must also sell his existing property before buying a new one, and is not allowed to sell the property in the first few years of ownership. The exact period depends on whether the property is still under construction or completed.
Owners found to breach the above rules will be fined up to $200,000 - up from $5,000 previously, with a new fine introduced of $2,000 per day for any continuing offence.
Another change requires a foreigner who inherits a landed property to sell it off within five years instead of 10 years.
Rules for foreign private developers will also change. A developer is considered 'foreign' if it has any foreign shareholders or directors, so this includes major developers here such as public-listed developers CapitaLand, Keppel Land and City Developments.
Under existing rules, they have to complete their developments within a certain timeframe and sell all units within two years of receiving the Temporary Occupation Permit.
Under the Bill, developers may be charged a fee for any extension of time beyond the given period, similar to rules under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Government Land Sales programme.
Managing director William Wong of RealStar Premier Property, a landed home specialist, did not think the proposed changes would have a big impact on the landed housing market, noting that 'most PRs who relinquish their status do try and sell their homes when they leave Singapore anyway'.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
Foreign landed home owners: new rules
PRs, citizens who give up status have to sell property within 2 years
By Jessica Cheam
HOME owners with that prized landed property address may have to dispose of their property within two years if they give up their Singapore permanent residency or citizenship status.
Failure to do so could see owners faced with a fine not exceeding $20,000 or a three-year jail term, or both.
There is no such requirement currently. This new rule is one of the proposed changes set out in the Residential Property (Amendment) Bill, introduced in Parliament yesterday. If passed, the new Bill will also stiffen penalties.
The Act, first introduced in 1973, imposes restrictions on foreign ownership of restricted properties, namely landed homes, strata-landed housing and vacant residential land.
Foreigners - who must be permanent residents in this case - must get approval from the Singapore Land Authority before buying such 'restricted' properties.
The penalties have not been revised since 1974. The new Bill will introduce harsher penalties for those who breach the rules.
Under the Act, foreign buyers can only purchase one landed home for owner-occupation and cannot rent it out.
He must also sell his existing property before buying a new one, and is not allowed to sell the property in the first few years of ownership. The exact period depends on whether the property is still under construction or completed.
Owners found to breach the above rules will be fined up to $200,000 - up from $5,000 previously, with a new fine introduced of $2,000 per day for any continuing offence.
Another change requires a foreigner who inherits a landed property to sell it off within five years instead of 10 years.
Rules for foreign private developers will also change. A developer is considered 'foreign' if it has any foreign shareholders or directors, so this includes major developers here such as public-listed developers CapitaLand, Keppel Land and City Developments.
Under existing rules, they have to complete their developments within a certain timeframe and sell all units within two years of receiving the Temporary Occupation Permit.
Under the Bill, developers may be charged a fee for any extension of time beyond the given period, similar to rules under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Government Land Sales programme.
Managing director William Wong of RealStar Premier Property, a landed home specialist, did not think the proposed changes would have a big impact on the landed housing market, noting that 'most PRs who relinquish their status do try and sell their homes when they leave Singapore anyway'.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
ST : Cooling-off period for flat sellers
Oct 19, 2010
Cooling-off period for flat sellers
By Esther Teo & Cheryl Ong
PEOPLE intending to sell their Housing Board (HDB) flats from Nov 1 will have to observe a seven-day cooling-off period before the deal can proceed.
If the designated waiting time has not been met, the HDB will reject the resale application. The seven-day period starts from the time the resale checklist has been completed until the granting of the option to purchase.
The new rules announced yesterday underline the need for financial prudence before buying or selling a home, said the HDB. It noted that its flats are meant for long-term owner occupation and that buying or selling one is a significant decision that should be considered carefully.
The cooling-off move is part of a series of enhancements to the resale checklist and sale procedures to help buyers and sellers make informed decisions, the HDB said.
Checklists were introduced in 2008 to ensure that both parties in a transaction know the key resale and financial policies before they sign on the dotted line.
People who intend to sell their flats should consider their finances carefully and plan for their next accommodation, while buyers should also exercise financial prudence, the HDB said.
The new rules will require buyers and sellers to be a bit more hands-on with the checklist. New requirements include:
· Sellers will have to state their next housing arrangement. If they intend to buy another flat, they will have to work out the estimated sales proceeds of the existing home and submit a financial plan for their next purchase, said the HDB.
· Sellers must deposit a soft-copy of the checklist and supporting documents such as estimated sales proceeds and their financial plan at the HDB's website by the following day after they complete the resale checklist.
· They will then need to submit the original copy of the checklist together with the option-to-purchase (OTP) at the first resale appointment. This is scheduled with HDB for the resale transaction to be processed.
'If the date on the original copy differs from the soft-copy submitted through (the HDB website), or if the OTP is dated within seven days from the checklist, the resale application will be rejected,' the HDB said.
· Buyers of resale flats who are not using an agent will also have to submit the resale checklist together with the resale application form. Previously, only buyers with agents had to.
Some of the changes were advocated in Parliament by MPs, including Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah GRC), who suggested earlier in the year that a one-week cooling-off period be imposed.
Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) said yesterday that people would now get a chance to reassess their situation, especially if they were subject to pressure to buy or sell their flat fast.
She cited a couple with four young children who sold their flat as they could not service the loan and wanted to downgrade. But they went into a business venture using the sales proceeds and lost everything. The couple could not get a bank loan and had to look for a rental flat.
'It's such a sad situation because it could have been avoided had they been given proper financial advice, or some time to think it through,' she said.
Madam Halimah added that the resale checklist was also very important as many people do not realise that a portion of the sales proceeds go back to their Central Provident Fund accounts.
HSR chief executive Patrick Liew said that he would occasionally hear of sellers who had not done their calculations well and had sold their property despite being unable to afford another.
HDB flat owner Stella Ong said that although she has no plans to sell her flat, the rules were welcome as they would give her more time to think through the complicated sale process.
'At least now I know that there's a temporary exit door to take if I ever feel uncomfortable with a transaction after thinking about it,' she said.
Cooling-off period for flat sellers
By Esther Teo & Cheryl Ong
PEOPLE intending to sell their Housing Board (HDB) flats from Nov 1 will have to observe a seven-day cooling-off period before the deal can proceed.
If the designated waiting time has not been met, the HDB will reject the resale application. The seven-day period starts from the time the resale checklist has been completed until the granting of the option to purchase.
The new rules announced yesterday underline the need for financial prudence before buying or selling a home, said the HDB. It noted that its flats are meant for long-term owner occupation and that buying or selling one is a significant decision that should be considered carefully.
The cooling-off move is part of a series of enhancements to the resale checklist and sale procedures to help buyers and sellers make informed decisions, the HDB said.
Checklists were introduced in 2008 to ensure that both parties in a transaction know the key resale and financial policies before they sign on the dotted line.
People who intend to sell their flats should consider their finances carefully and plan for their next accommodation, while buyers should also exercise financial prudence, the HDB said.
The new rules will require buyers and sellers to be a bit more hands-on with the checklist. New requirements include:
· Sellers will have to state their next housing arrangement. If they intend to buy another flat, they will have to work out the estimated sales proceeds of the existing home and submit a financial plan for their next purchase, said the HDB.
· Sellers must deposit a soft-copy of the checklist and supporting documents such as estimated sales proceeds and their financial plan at the HDB's website by the following day after they complete the resale checklist.
· They will then need to submit the original copy of the checklist together with the option-to-purchase (OTP) at the first resale appointment. This is scheduled with HDB for the resale transaction to be processed.
'If the date on the original copy differs from the soft-copy submitted through (the HDB website), or if the OTP is dated within seven days from the checklist, the resale application will be rejected,' the HDB said.
· Buyers of resale flats who are not using an agent will also have to submit the resale checklist together with the resale application form. Previously, only buyers with agents had to.
Some of the changes were advocated in Parliament by MPs, including Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah GRC), who suggested earlier in the year that a one-week cooling-off period be imposed.
Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) said yesterday that people would now get a chance to reassess their situation, especially if they were subject to pressure to buy or sell their flat fast.
She cited a couple with four young children who sold their flat as they could not service the loan and wanted to downgrade. But they went into a business venture using the sales proceeds and lost everything. The couple could not get a bank loan and had to look for a rental flat.
'It's such a sad situation because it could have been avoided had they been given proper financial advice, or some time to think it through,' she said.
Madam Halimah added that the resale checklist was also very important as many people do not realise that a portion of the sales proceeds go back to their Central Provident Fund accounts.
HSR chief executive Patrick Liew said that he would occasionally hear of sellers who had not done their calculations well and had sold their property despite being unable to afford another.
HDB flat owner Stella Ong said that although she has no plans to sell her flat, the rules were welcome as they would give her more time to think through the complicated sale process.
'At least now I know that there's a temporary exit door to take if I ever feel uncomfortable with a transaction after thinking about it,' she said.
ST : HDB spot checks on property ownership
Oct 19, 2010
HDB spot checks on property ownership
SPOT CHECKS are in store for Housing Board (HDB) flat buyers, to see if they are breaking the rules on owning private property in Singapore or overseas.
Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said yesterday the public housing authority will conduct spot checks both locally and overseas, to determine if HDB flat buyers are lying about their interests in other properties.
He was responding to a question from Ms Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) who voiced what has been on the minds of Singaporeans: how HDB will trace whether an HDB owner has a foreign property.
The HDB had recently announced that those who buy an HDB resale flat on or after Aug 30 must dispose of their private property - including any held overseas - within six months of the HDB purchase.
Mr Mah explained that at the point of purchase, HDB flat buyers are required to declare any interest or ownership in private property, local or overseas.
Those guilty of false declarations can be liable, on conviction, to a fine of up to $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term up to six months, or both.
If it is discovered before the completion of the purchase, HDB can cancel the application.
If the discovery is made after the sale, HDB can compulsorily acquire the flat.
'For practical reasons, HDB adopts different approaches to check on private property ownership in different countries.
'I am unable to disclose the details to avoid hampering HDB's enforcement work,' said Mr Mah.
HDB spot checks on property ownership
SPOT CHECKS are in store for Housing Board (HDB) flat buyers, to see if they are breaking the rules on owning private property in Singapore or overseas.
Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said yesterday the public housing authority will conduct spot checks both locally and overseas, to determine if HDB flat buyers are lying about their interests in other properties.
He was responding to a question from Ms Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) who voiced what has been on the minds of Singaporeans: how HDB will trace whether an HDB owner has a foreign property.
The HDB had recently announced that those who buy an HDB resale flat on or after Aug 30 must dispose of their private property - including any held overseas - within six months of the HDB purchase.
Mr Mah explained that at the point of purchase, HDB flat buyers are required to declare any interest or ownership in private property, local or overseas.
Those guilty of false declarations can be liable, on conviction, to a fine of up to $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term up to six months, or both.
If it is discovered before the completion of the purchase, HDB can cancel the application.
If the discovery is made after the sale, HDB can compulsorily acquire the flat.
'For practical reasons, HDB adopts different approaches to check on private property ownership in different countries.
'I am unable to disclose the details to avoid hampering HDB's enforcement work,' said Mr Mah.
ST : S'poreans driving private property market, says Mah
Oct 19, 2010
S'poreans driving private property market, says Mah
By Jessica Cheam
LOCAL buyers still make up the bulk of private home buyers in Singapore. Permanent residents (PRs) made up 13 per cent and foreigners 12 per cent of sales in the second quarter respectively.
Similarly, speculative activity in the private property market is driven mostly by locals. PRs and foreigners accounted for about 27 per cent of all sub-sales in the past two years.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan revealed these figures yesterday in Parliament in response to MPs who asked if PRs and foreigners were 'flipping' properties in Singapore.
Flipping, or a sub-sale, takes place when a buyer purchases a new apartment, then resells it before construction is complete.
Mr Mah added that the second quarter sales figures were close to the average of 12 per cent and 10 per cent for PRs and foreigners respectively over the past two years. PRs and foreigners also account for a relatively low 6 per cent of all landed home sales.
As a cosmopolitan city, it was important for Singapore to let foreigners and PRs buy properties here, while monitoring 'how much of the market is actually made up of foreigners and PRs', he said.
MPs also voiced their concerns on the health of Singapore's property market, with Madam Cynthia Phua (Aljunied GRC) asking whether any more measures would be introduced.
Mr Mah responded that this 'ultimately depends on what happens in the (property market) situation'.
'We have taken an approach of having few calibrated steps rather than to take one big step or one big bang approach to try to cool the market down.'
Given many factors involved in shaping the property market, Mr Mah said it was 'presumptuous or even foolhardy' to predict what the market would be like in a year.
He added: 'Where we see that there is a danger of the market heating up further or not moving in a healthy direction, we reserve the right to take the appropriate action.'
On the market reaction to the recent measures, Mr Mah noted that 'there are signs of greater stability in the market'.
Based on flash estimates, the increase in private home prices has moderated to a 3.1 per cent increase in the third quarter, compared to 5.3 per cent in the second.
Volume of sales of private homes and HDB resale flats declined 28 per cent and 25 per cent respectively last month compared to August.
Responding to Ms Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC), Mr Mah reiterated that the recent rules tightening ownership of HDB flats was to dampen demand from those who are not in urgent need of housing.
For example, those who own private property here or overseas, and want to buy an HDB flat, must dispose of their private property within six months. Responding to MPs' concerns, Mr Mah said that HDB will look into the circumstances of special cases.
HDB has received over 100 appeals from potential flat buyers who own overseas properties, and over 150 appeals from those who own local private properties.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
S'poreans driving private property market, says Mah
By Jessica Cheam
LOCAL buyers still make up the bulk of private home buyers in Singapore. Permanent residents (PRs) made up 13 per cent and foreigners 12 per cent of sales in the second quarter respectively.
Similarly, speculative activity in the private property market is driven mostly by locals. PRs and foreigners accounted for about 27 per cent of all sub-sales in the past two years.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan revealed these figures yesterday in Parliament in response to MPs who asked if PRs and foreigners were 'flipping' properties in Singapore.
Flipping, or a sub-sale, takes place when a buyer purchases a new apartment, then resells it before construction is complete.
Mr Mah added that the second quarter sales figures were close to the average of 12 per cent and 10 per cent for PRs and foreigners respectively over the past two years. PRs and foreigners also account for a relatively low 6 per cent of all landed home sales.
As a cosmopolitan city, it was important for Singapore to let foreigners and PRs buy properties here, while monitoring 'how much of the market is actually made up of foreigners and PRs', he said.
MPs also voiced their concerns on the health of Singapore's property market, with Madam Cynthia Phua (Aljunied GRC) asking whether any more measures would be introduced.
Mr Mah responded that this 'ultimately depends on what happens in the (property market) situation'.
'We have taken an approach of having few calibrated steps rather than to take one big step or one big bang approach to try to cool the market down.'
Given many factors involved in shaping the property market, Mr Mah said it was 'presumptuous or even foolhardy' to predict what the market would be like in a year.
He added: 'Where we see that there is a danger of the market heating up further or not moving in a healthy direction, we reserve the right to take the appropriate action.'
On the market reaction to the recent measures, Mr Mah noted that 'there are signs of greater stability in the market'.
Based on flash estimates, the increase in private home prices has moderated to a 3.1 per cent increase in the third quarter, compared to 5.3 per cent in the second.
Volume of sales of private homes and HDB resale flats declined 28 per cent and 25 per cent respectively last month compared to August.
Responding to Ms Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC), Mr Mah reiterated that the recent rules tightening ownership of HDB flats was to dampen demand from those who are not in urgent need of housing.
For example, those who own private property here or overseas, and want to buy an HDB flat, must dispose of their private property within six months. Responding to MPs' concerns, Mr Mah said that HDB will look into the circumstances of special cases.
HDB has received over 100 appeals from potential flat buyers who own overseas properties, and over 150 appeals from those who own local private properties.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
ST : Canopy sells 100 units over the weekend
Oct 18, 2010
Canopy sells 100 units over the weekend
WITHIN an hour of opening its doors on Saturday, The Canopy in Yishun had sold all the 20 units allocated to upgraders.
Another 80 or so units were booked by first-time buyers over the weekend, said Mr Tan Zhi Yong, managing director of MCC Land, which is developing the project.
The executive condominium (EC) - only the second to be launched in the last five years - has 406 units in total. In the first month of sale, 95 per cent of the units are set aside for first-timers, which means upgraders and other buyers can only buy 5 per cent of these units.
But next month, the remaining unsold units will be opened up to all buyers.
Mr Tan expects better sales then, saying demand is especially strong from upgraders.
In total, the project drew about 450 applications for its units, Mr Tan told The Straits Times.
But he said some applicants dropped out of the race because their monthly income levels exceeded the $10,000 cap imposed on EC buyers.
ECs, the most premium form of public housing, are subject to similar restrictions on eligibility, ownership and resale as normal HDB flats. But after 10 years, these restrictions are lifted and the developments become like private condos.
Several hundred interested buyers thronged the showroom over the weekend, Mr Tan said.
But not all the visitors ended up booking a flat, because while ECs have risen in price and quality over the last 10 years, the income ceiling for eligible buyers has stayed the same.
This means many buyers who can afford the units in The Canopy have breached the income cap, he said.
'A lot of buyers asked us to appeal for them, some saying that they had just crossed the income ceiling this month only.'
FIONA CHAN
Canopy sells 100 units over the weekend
WITHIN an hour of opening its doors on Saturday, The Canopy in Yishun had sold all the 20 units allocated to upgraders.
Another 80 or so units were booked by first-time buyers over the weekend, said Mr Tan Zhi Yong, managing director of MCC Land, which is developing the project.
The executive condominium (EC) - only the second to be launched in the last five years - has 406 units in total. In the first month of sale, 95 per cent of the units are set aside for first-timers, which means upgraders and other buyers can only buy 5 per cent of these units.
But next month, the remaining unsold units will be opened up to all buyers.
Mr Tan expects better sales then, saying demand is especially strong from upgraders.
In total, the project drew about 450 applications for its units, Mr Tan told The Straits Times.
But he said some applicants dropped out of the race because their monthly income levels exceeded the $10,000 cap imposed on EC buyers.
ECs, the most premium form of public housing, are subject to similar restrictions on eligibility, ownership and resale as normal HDB flats. But after 10 years, these restrictions are lifted and the developments become like private condos.
Several hundred interested buyers thronged the showroom over the weekend, Mr Tan said.
But not all the visitors ended up booking a flat, because while ECs have risen in price and quality over the last 10 years, the income ceiling for eligible buyers has stayed the same.
This means many buyers who can afford the units in The Canopy have breached the income cap, he said.
'A lot of buyers asked us to appeal for them, some saying that they had just crossed the income ceiling this month only.'
FIONA CHAN
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