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The Straits Times Sunday, Oct 28, 2012 SINGAPORE - THE much-anticipated South Beach project is gathering pace with the developer preparing to market the homes, offices and shop space. The City Developments (CDL) and IOI Corporation consortium is "at the stage of preparing to market or pre-lease" the development, but has not finalised the launch date and pricing, a CDL spokesman said. The mixed-use project - located between Raffles Hotel and Suntec City, and next to the Esplanade MRT station - will feature 190 homes, 651 hotel rooms, 49,000 sq m of office space and 7,900 sqm of retail space. A 2,700 sq m area will also be set aside for a private club. Some agents gathering interest for the high-end complex told The Straits Times that flats could be sold at about $4,000 per sq ft (psf) on average. They added that some regulatory approvals are still needed before flats can be sold, but the development - which had been hit by delays due to the global fin

SINGAPORE: The former headquarters of Singapore's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has attracted high bids to rent its premises. Six bids in total were received for the property's less than three-year rental lease, with the highest bid at about S$92,000 per month. The building at Eu Tong Sen street, which has been gazetted for conservation, has a monthly guide rent of some S$43,000. Possible uses for the property include turning it into a students' hostel or arts studio. There is also potential for other uses when the rental lease ends in February 2015. SLP International Property Consultants' executive director, Nicholas Mak, said: "Since only the main building needs to be preserved, there's a possibility that the developer can clear off some of the auxiliary building and still have enough space to build other buildings." "The future development for this site could either be a hotel and a office building, or the enti

HONG KONG: Hong Kong announced on Friday it will raise real-estate purchasing and resale costs to cool its overheating property market down, in a move targeting non-local buyers and speculative activities. The prices of small and medium sized residential flats in the city surged 20 per cent for the first nine months of the year, prompting the government to take action. The new measures include the increase of special stamp duties for properties re-sold within the first three years of its purchase and imposing an extra 15 per cent transaction cost on non-local buyers and local and foreign companies. The measures "targets speculative activities, and for most genuine homebuyers it would not affect them because they won't be reselling in a short period of time", said Financial Secretary John Tsang. The extra 15 per cent transaction cost "will cause inconvenience to some non-local buyers. We hope that they will understand that this is an extraordinary

HDB offers doors and sanitary fittings under latest option Oct 27, 2012 The Housing Board has introduced a doors-and-sanitary fittings package for Build-To-Order (BTO) flats launched from September. The package costs between $3,190 and $4,330, depending on the flat type. Home owners say this scheme goes some way to address concerns about the cost of the HDB's doors-only package, which costs about $3,000 on average for four- and five-room flats. Under HDB's Optional Component Scheme (OCS), buyers can opt to pay for extra finishes such as flooring and internal doors. They pick their options when selecting their flat at HDB Hub, and can use their Central Provident Fund or mortgage loan for this. The OCS includes an internal doors package that ranges from $600 to $3,080, depending on how big the flat is. A set of five laminated semi-solid timber doors, for instance, costs $2,830 for BTO projects launched in March this year such as Fajar Hills and C

Real estate counters good value for money, say analysts Oct 27, 2012 Stock market investors look to have brushed off the Government's property cooling measures earlier this month as real estate counters have been rallying over the past two weeks. Equity analysts have mostly been bullish on the sector, saying that the cheap valuations of these shares and their strong dividend yields make them good additions to a portfolio amid volatile markets. They have also said that real estate firms are among the few companies on the mainboard that could possibly surprise the market with better-than-expected financial results in the third quarter given that home sales have remained robust throughout the year. Just last week, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced that 2,621 new private homes were sold in September, up 83.7 per cent from August. The FTSE ST Real Estate Holding and Development sub-index dropped 2.7 per cent in the week following

110 out of 702 units are still up for sale. Singapore Business Review's spot check with marketing agents found that this property located near Bartley MRT station has 55 units snapped up this month as of October 19. Units were sold at an average price of $1,220-$1,250psf. Data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed that Bartley Residences, a joint development by Hong Leong Group and City Developments, sold a total of 537 out of 702 units in the eight-month period to September. Bartley Residences first launched on February 22 where more than half of released units or 65 out of 120 units were sold at an average price of $1,200 per square foot. Main attractions are as follows: - Right next to Bartley Circle Line MRT Station - Within 1 km to Maris Stella High School - 1 MRT stop to Nex Mall, Serangoon MRT Interchange - 3 MRT stops to Paya Lebar Commercial Hub Martin Koh | 86666 944 | R020968Z Sherry Tang | 9844 4400 | R020241C Senior S

Guess which bank was the most aggressive in the market? Based on Barclays' channel checks, the latest cooling measures affect up to 10% of new mortgage applications (~2% of existing book assuming average duration of 5 years), taking into account loan tenure and affordability. Here's more from Barclays: OCBC was the most aggressive in the mortgage market, growing its mortgage book by 9% in 1H12 h/h. As corporate lending slows, we expect DBS and UOB to be more active in winning mortgage market share in 2H12E. Given that the average system mortgage LTV is only 44%, we believe the risk of substantial losses from potential property price declines is minimal. The biggest risk we see to mortgage asset quality is a potential rise in unemployment. Unemployment remains low at 2%. Martin Koh | 86666 944 | R020968Z Sherry Tang | 9844 4400 | R020241C Senior Sales Director Email: marshe_inc@yahoo.com.sg DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (SEA) Pte Ltd (L3006301G

The Business Times Friday, Oct 26, 2012 The buzz in the Redhill MRT Station vicinity continues on the Government Land Sale circuit. A 99-year-leasehold private housing site dubbed Alexandra View (Parcel B) has been triggered for release from the government's reserve list. The successful applicant, which has not been named by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), has agreed to bid at least $222.898 million at tender. This works out to $650 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr). The site can be developed into a maximum 455 units under URA guidelines announced early last month to cap the number of homes in new private housing projects Outside the Central Area based on an average unit size of 70 sq metres (753.47 sq ft) gross floor area. Jones Lang LaSalle's national director, research and consultancy, Ong Teck Hui expects Parcel B can be developed into a condo of around 42 storeys. "If current buoyant sentiment for attractive sites continue

The Straits Times Friday, Oct 26, 2012 An increasing number of executive condominium (EC) units are being sold with million-dollar price tags, as this segment of the market grows in popularity. More than 340 new EC units have been sold at over $1million each since the relaunch of the housing category in late 2010, with half going in the first eight months of this year, Savills Singapore research head Alan Cheong noted. Moreover, close to 100 units with $1 million-plus price tags were sold in the second quarter of this year alone. The million-dollar buys include two sky suites at The Rainforest in Choa Chu Kang - one at 2,476 sq ft for $1.58 million; the other, 2,433 sq ft for $1.56 million. Meanwhile, a 2,713 sq ft penthouse at One Canberra in Yishun was sold for $1.61million in August, a record for a new EC unit. But the highest per sq ft price was $941 for a 958 sq ft unit at Arc at Tampines. The average price for all new EC units was $822,000 in the sec

The Business Times Friday, Oct 26, 2012 SINGAPORE - A double-storey penthouse at 1 Canberra in Yishun was sold for $1.61 million, setting a record for new executive condominiums (ECs) and prompting one property consultancy to warn about the affordability of high-priced units. Savills, which released the data, urged buyers to "exercise prudence" when they buy ECs that cost more than $1 million, after the four-bedroom, dual-key unit was transacted in August. More than half of the 343 new units that fetched more than $1 million since the EC scheme was relaunched in late 2010 were sold this year, Savills' caveats data showed. Christine Sun, senior manager of research and consultancy at Savills, said that this compares with 115 such units for the whole of last year. Savills said that a growing number of young and affluent buyers are going for bigger and more high-end units that offer perks, such as spacious balconies and unobstructed views. "

The Business Times Thursday, Oct 25, 2012 SINGAPORE - A low-key by-appointment-only private preview has begun for Eden Residences Capitol, a high-end residential development just across the street from St Andrew's Cathedral. BT understands that options have been granted for the first few of the development's 39 units, at between $2,900 and $3,100 per square foot (psf); this works out to $6.5 million to $10.4 million per apartment. The buyers are a mix of Singaporeans and mainland Chinese, disclosed Pua Seck Guan, vice-chairman and president of Perennial Real Estate Holdings, which owns a 24 per cent stake in Capitol Investment Holdings, the consortium developing the Capitol project. The 99-year leasehold mixed development will incorporate a hotel, retail and entertainment components. Chesham Properties, a member of Pontiac Land Group, owns a 50 per cent stake in the consortium, and OSIM International founder and chief executive Ron Sim - in his persona

The Straits Times Wednesday, Oct 24, 2012 The Government's reiteration that it will not build new executive maisonettes will further boost the prices of such "limited edition" units, said analysts. These large, two-storey flats have become highly sought-after in the last few years due to a growing price gap between Housing Board flats and private property, and a wave of collective sales that have thrown up cash-rich buyers looking for big spaces. Some flats in neighbourhoods like Bishan have made headlines for fetching record prices. This year, four of the eight units that broke the $900,000 threshold were executive maisonettes. HDB stopped building these homes, which range in size from 138 sq m to 243 sq m, in 1995. There are 65,000 executive flats altogether, of which executive maisonettes form one group. The spotlight on the latter has led to renewed interest on the ground, said Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Gan Thiam Poh. It led him to ask in Parl