Singapore Real Estate

CEL Development is launching the remaining units of its Oasis @ Elias condominium at Pasir Ris on Saturday.
Half of the 142 units previewed have been sold, at an average price of S$670 per square foot.
The units that have been sold included six of nine penthouses in the property.
Marketing agent CB Richard Ellis said HDB upgraders [...]

While several new malls are being built along Orchard Road, Meritus Mandarin Hotel has been quietly renovating its shopping wing.
Mandarin Gallery will re-open in December, competing with new entrants on the prime shopping district for the retail dollar.
Meritus Mandarin Hotel is turning its lobby, ballrooms and function rooms into retail space – offering four floors [...]

Global luxury retailer Louis Vuitton has said it is in discussions to open a store at one of the two upcoming integrated resorts in Singapore scheduled to open next year.
This was revealed at a preview of its latest global store, which will open at ION Orchard on Friday.
Jean-Baptiste Debains, president of Louis Vuitton Asia Pacific, [...]

An increasing number of people have been taking on green initiatives, including companies.
But what about cities?
The World Bank has just launched its Eco2 Cities programme which proposes a set of guidelines that will help cities and governments move in the right direction. The programme is aimed at encouraging cities to think of longer term, sustainable [...]

Singapore’s government said on Thursday it will continue to suspend the sale of land on its ‘confirmed list’ in the second half of 2009 due to economic uncertainties.
The government did, however, add three sites to its ‘reserve list’, increasing the number of land parcels that may be sold to nine from six.
Singapore will only release [...]

The government will introduce three new sites in its industrial land sales programme for the second half of the year.
The Trade and Industry Ministry says this is to meet potential demand for industrial land. With the addition, there will be nine sites on the Reserve List.
The three new sites are parcels at Woodlands Avenue 12, [...]

Location: Balmoral Road (District 10)
Tenure: Freehold
Site Area: 102,183 sqft
Expected Completion: June 2014
Total Units: 85
Unit Types:
2 bedroom ~ 1,324 sqft (20 units)
3 bedroom ~ 1,636 – 2,809 sqft (31 units)
4 bedroom ~ 2,174 – 2,745 sqft (29 units)
Penthouse ~ 3,509 – 6,168 sqft (5 units)
Preview soon, email lushhome@gmail.com or SMS +65 9631 8037 with the [...]

URA flash estimates show 5.9% fall but many expect final showing to be better
Singapore’s private home prices fell for a fourth straight quarter in Q2 2009 – but the marked slowdown in the rate of decline shows that the residential market here is recovering, analysts said.
The private residential price index fell 5.9 per cent in [...]

PRIVATE home prices slowed their downward slide in the second quarter, with suburban homes helping to hold up the market.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced yesterday that its initial estimates showed a 5.9 per cent fall in private home prices from April to last month, following a record 14.1 per cent slide in the first [...]

PRICES of HDB flats have staged a surprising comeback, reversing a first-quarter dip of 0.8 per cent to rise 1.2 per cent in the second quarter and reach a historical high.
Flash estimates from the Housing and Development Board (HDB) released yesterday show the resale price index rising to 140 – a record level not seen [...]

The property rush continues to grab the headlines with queues at new launches and crowds at show flats. Perhaps a sobering reminder would be the still declining prices based on the Urban Development Authority’s (URA) flash estimates released earlier this Wednesday. The price index for private residential property is still falling, albeit at a slower [...]

Private home prices in Singapore have fallen for the fourth straight quarter, though at a slower pace.
Initial estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Wednesday showed that the cost of private residential properties fell by 5.9 per cent in the second quarter, compared to the record drop of 14.1 per cent in the previous [...]

CapitaLand unit, Ascott, has opened two new serviced residence apartments in China.
Somerset JieFangBei is in Chongqing, while Somerset Garden City is located in Shenzhen. The properties are Ascott’s first in each city.
Ascott now has 26 properties in 12 cities across China, making it the largest international serviced residence owner and operator in the country.
Ascott CEO [...]

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded another contract worth S$378 million for Downtown Line 2 (DTL2).
The contract for civil works went to local firm, Sembawang Engineers and Constructors.
The firm will design and build stations and tunnels at Botanic Gardens and Stevens.
Construction of the stations is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2009 [...]

The official price index for private homes slipped 5.9 per cent in second quarter 2009 over the preceding quarter, according to a flash estimate released on Wednesday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
The Q2 drop is smaller than the 14.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline in the index in Q1 this year.
URA also released on Wednesday [...]

The Housing & Development Board’s (HDB) flash estimate of the resale price index for HDB flats in second quarter 2009 rose 1.2 per cent over the preceding quarter. This reverses a marginal quarter-on-quarter drop of 0.8 per cent registered in Q1.
The resale price index for the full Q2 2009, along with more detailed public housing [...]

Private home prices in Singapore have fallen for the fourth straight quarter, though at a slower pace.
Initial estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed Wednesday that the cost of private residential properties fell by 5.9 per cent in the second quarter, compared to the record drop of 14.1 per cent in the previous quarter [...]

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will put an industrial site at Kaki Bukit up for sale through a public tender.
It says it has accepted an application from a developer who has agreed to bid for the land parcel at or above the minimum acceptable price of S$5 million. The identity of the developer was not [...]

Singapore has moved a notch higher to 18th spot as the most expensive retail location in the world, despite easing rental rates for super prime retail space.
Property consultancy firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) said prime retail rents have declined across the globe with the global financial crisis reducing consumer confidence and weakening spending.
Yet super prime [...]

* Property prices drop in both big cities, rural areas
* Bleak economic conditions weigh on real estate market
Land prices in Japan fell 5.5 per cent in 2008, marking the first decline in four years, a government survey showed on Wednesday, as the global financial crisis dealt a blow to the Japanese real estate market.
Japan’s deepest [...]

Latitude at Jalan Mutiara
Types of unit Latitude:
2 rooms 1324 square feet from $1645psf
3 rooms 1615 square feet /1927 square feet from $1700psf
4 rooms 2659 square feet from $1823psf
Buy Sell Rent Invest Singapore Property singapore real estate
Mindy Yong
Tel: (+65) 91002985
mindy@mindyyong.com ( email me )

CapitaCommercial Trust, says a total of 1,901.1 million rights units in valid acceptances and excess applications were received at the close of its rights issue on June 24. This represents about 135.4% of the total number of rights units available under the rights issue.
On May 22, CapitaCommercial Trust announced a fully-underwritten 1-for-1 renounceable rights issue [...]

Frasers Commercial Trust, Singapore’s third-biggest office property trust, said it plans to buy an office building in the city-state and raise $888.9 million to repay maturing debt.
The trust obtained $675 million in two loans and plans to raise $213.9 million selling stock in a three-for-one rights offer, it said in a statement today. Frasers Commercial [...]

Singapore Exchange’s Mainboard-listed Frasers Commercial Trust has asked for a trading halt of its units pending an announcement. No further details were given.
Back in April, Frasers Commercial Trust had said it was exploring ways to refinance its existing debt, which may include a rights issue.
Frasers Centrepoint, which sponsored the trust, is a unit of the [...]

CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT) said its rights issue was 1.35 times oversubscribed.
The trust had launched a 1-for-1 renounceable rights issue of 1.4 billion rights units at 59 cents each.
But applications came in for over 1.9 billion rights units.
CCT launched the rights issue to raise S$828.3 million, mainly to reduce its existing borrowings.
The rest of the proceeds [...]

After a near month-long tussle, some tenants at The Grangeford may stay on at the condominium after all.
About 40 of them have expressed interest to do so under the new landlord, Savills although the actual number could be higher as some enter into joint-leases with others to rent whole apartment units.
Residents had been given till [...]

Preview Soon – Meier Suites @ Margate Road

Project Name
Meier Suites

Developer
SB (Meyer) Development Pte Ltd (A subsidiary of Soilbuild Group Holdings Ltd)

District
15

Location
Margate Road

Expected T.O.P
2nd Half 2014

Expected Completion Date
2017

Land Area
51,800 sq ft

Tenure
Freehold

Total Parking Lots
114 (per unit allocated to 2 parking lots)

No. [...]

But it is too early to call a recovery, cautions OCBC Investment Research
Private home sales stayed strong in June.
Far East Organization sold 74 apartments in its 280-unit Vista Residences at a private preview last weekend, the developer said yesterday.
And Frasers Centrepoint said that it has fully sold two of its projects – the 330-unit 8@Woodleigh [...]

STRONG sales in the property market continued over the weekend as mass- and upper-mid- market launches drew crowds of buyers.
Within three days of its preview launch last Friday, the 68-unit Residences @ Killiney project sold 39 of 60 released units – with sales ongoing, a spokesman for developer Hoi Hup Realty said yesterday.
Preview prices at [...]

25 initiatives will fund educational, medical needs
TO mark its 25th anniversary, the Ascott Group has organised more than 25 community initiatives worldwide, ranging from supporting the educational needs of under-privileged children to funding their medical treatment.
Ascott staff raised $25,000 to contribute to the educational and developmental needs of children at Singapore’s Chaoyang School, Pertapis Children’s [...]

SADLY, Singapore still has a long way to go before it matures as a society, even if it has done well economically.
Hotel 81 – which is a hotel, not a brothel, by the way – in Tiong Bahru bears this out. Like the issue of housing dormitories for foreign workers in Serangoon Gardens, some [...]

ANOTHER furore seems to be brewing over a location for a budget hotel in Singapore. If this had been a major hotel development, I wonder if it would have invited such a reaction. If one goes to Tiong Bahru, one will notice many prominent hotels within a 2km radius. So why do [...]

Mortgage rates are lowest in 19 years in face of slower demand for credit
Hong Kong high school teacher Chris Poon’s dream of buying his first apartment was dashed in last December when banks refused to fund more than 50 per cent of the HK$3.5 million (S$657,650) purchase.
Mr Poon, 33, tried again in May and got [...]

Investors upbeat; analysts expect more upside ahead
Japan’s real estate investment trust market climbed to an eight- month high yesterday as investors grew more optimistic about the sector’s financial health and analysts forecast more upside ahead.
Along with property stocks, Japan’s Reit market was hit hard as the global financial crisis pushed down property values and squeezed [...]

Asking prices for existing homes in Spain dropped by as much as 4.5 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months, Idealista.com said yesterday, as lenders granted fewer mortgages and unemployment increased.
The prices asked by sellers in Spain’s biggest cities fell on average by 1-3 per cent, Idealista said in an e-mailed [...]

Malaysian property developers, set to be the best performers on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange this quarter, had their stock ratings raised by HwangDBS Vickers Research Sdn, which said that sales are rebounding and potential ‘positive’ policy announcements may bolster demand.
SP Setia Bhd, Malaysia’s biggest property developer, was upgraded to ‘buy’ from ‘fully valued’, and [...]

UK home-loan approvals climbed less than economists forecast last month as the credit squeeze led to the smallest increase in net mortgage lending since records began in 1993.
Banks granted 43,414 loans in May, compared with 43,191 in April, the Bank of England said yesterday in London. Economists predicted 46,000, the median of 22 forecasts in [...]

New Launch – Latitude

Project Name
LATITUDE

District
10

Address
Jalan Mutiara

Developer
Phoenix Realty Pte Ltd (Capitaland)

Type of Development
3 blocks of 22/23-storey condominium

Tenure
Freehold

Expected TOP Date
2011

Total Units
127

Type Of Units

2 Bdrm
1324sf
from $1645 psf

3 Bdrm
1615sf/1927sf
from $1700 psf

4 Bdrm
2659sf
from $1823 psf

Nearby MRT
Orchard MRT (NS22), 950.59 m

Nearby Schools

Overseas Family School
700.18 m

ISS International School (Elementary)
725.43 m

ISS International [...]

The average monthly prime Grade A office rental fell 11 per cent quarter on quarter to $9.50 per square foot (psf) in the second quarter, slower than the 28 per cent quarter-on-quarter slide in Q1 2009, according to property consulting group Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
The latest drop translates to an overall slide of 48 per [...]

Credit Suisse, which predicted in January that an astonishing 200,000 foreigners and permanent residents (PRs) might leave Singapore in 2009 and 2010 on the back of job losses, now thinks that the exodus may not be as bad as it had expected.
The evidence for this can be gleaned from the bank’s forecasts for the property [...]

LOWER rents and operating costs are luring some entrepreneurs into expanding their food and beverage businesses, even in a recession year.
But because it is a recession year, they are going for mid-priced bistros, cafes and bars which are easier on the pocket than fine dining restaurants.
The next few months will see more new eateries opening, [...]

The Singapore private homes market has been seeing quite a bit of activity on improved sentiment, in contrast to the prevailing weak economic climate.
New home sales have remained strong, crossing the 1,000-unit mark every month since February, and the sentiment has spilled over to the resale market.
Last week’s data from Jones Lang LaSalle showed that [...]

Where do you see this?
In financial news articles, classified advertisements and auction houses’ list of properties on offer.
What does it mean?
A mortgagee sale takes place when a bank force-sells a property after it has repossessed it, when the borrower cannot pay his mortgage. The repossessed property is usually sold via an auction [...]

Young people in Singapore are the new darlings of retailers, going by the efforts made by malls to woo them.
While they lack earning power, they have ’staying power’ – they linger longer and hang out in groups.
The 1980s saw a rash of malls, but only a few became youth hangouts. There were the Centrepoint [...]

Look out for a three-storey lookout tower.
Coming up too are a new shopping complex linked to a condominium, an air-conditioned bus interchange and a remake of Yishun Pond. –PHOTO: HDB
That is one attraction that residents in Yishun can look forward to when the town centre is transformed in the coming years.
Coming up, too, are a [...]

A STRONG showing at auctions this week raised the tally for properties sold under the hammer in the first half-year to $72.4 million – just 13 per cent shy of the $83.7 million for the whole of last year, based on figures compiled by Colliers International. The second quarter of 2009 saw a total [...]

CHINA and Australia are seen as good bets in the Asia-Pacific for real estate investments, according to two recent reports.
A survey of 73 investors, fund managers and fund of funds managers showed that they rank China, Australia and Japan as the three most appealing locations.
Singapore, on the other hand, was ranked last among seven places [...]

AUCTION sales have surged in the first half of this year, with the number of transactions dramatically higher than what was clocked up last year.
The numbers tell a story of a property market rapidly gaining in confidence, especially in recent months, according to consultancy Colliers International yesterday.
Sales in the first half reached $72.39 million. [...]

ALL 55 floors of the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort overlooking Marina Bay have been built.
Next up: Putting the one-hectare sky park in place atop the three hotel towers, 200m off the ground.
This update came yesterday from the resort.
Meanwhile, parts of the sky park are being fabricated off-site. It will take 14 lifts to [...]

The landed housing market has been particularly active in the past month.
At Bowmont Gardens in Frankel Estate in the east,a terrace house with a land area of 1,539 sq ft was sold for $950,000, or $617 psf, last month. According to caveats lodged with URA Realis, this property changed hands three times in the last [...]

Investment sales of Singapore real estate so far this quarter have hit $953.9 million, a jump of 248 per cent from $273.8 million in the first quarter, says CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
The increase came as residential investment sales quadrupled on the back of a growing number of high-end condo purchases, a pick-up in transactions of [...]

OVERSEAS Union Enterprise (OUE) said yesterday two of its indirect fully owned units have obtained a secured term loan facility for up to $300 million.
The arranger and security agent for the facility is Standard Chartered Bank and the facility agent is Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong).
The facility is secured by, among other things, first legal [...]

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will launch a public tender for a hotel site at New Bridge Road in two weeks’ time, it said yesterday.
The 0.45ha site was made available for sale through the government’s reserve list system in April 2007. Under the reserve list system, the government will put up a site for [...]

RESORTS World at Sentosa (RWS) will complete all structural buildings by next month – 27 months after it broke ground in April, 2007.
Michael Chin, RWS executive vice-president, said yesterday that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has approved the company’s request to increase the quota of foreign workers on site.
MOM is also understood to have approved [...]

A HANDBOOK for incorporating waterscapes in developments was launched yesterday at Singapore International Water Week.
‘The ABC Waters Design Guidelines handbook is meant to be a ‘living’ document that provides general guiding principles,’ said Tan Nguan Sen, PUB’s director of catchment and waterways.
Launched in 2006 by national water agency PUB, the ABC programme aims to transform [...]

THE Sentosa integrated resort (IR) is all set to throw open its doors in the first quarter of next year – but visitors will not get to see the finished product.
When the resort opens, just 60 per cent of it will be ready: four hotels, the casino, the Universal Studios theme park, the theatre and [...]

RAIN gardens and plant-covered condominiums could become commonplace if new design guidelines from the PUB are implemented by developers.
The guide, part of the Active Beautiful Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme, is aimed at developers, both public and private, and details ways in which drainage systems and water features can filter rainwater before it reaches the [...]

HOTEL site on New Bridge Road is up for public tender after an unnamed buyer put in a bid that matched or exceeded the Government’s minimum price. This has triggered the tender process.
The site was on a reserve list and goes on sale only when developers indicate a certain level of interest. In [...]

YES
ALTHOUGH the concerns raised by residents are not baseless, approval of a hotel development in the area is in line with demand for more hotels as Singapore gears up for the integrated resorts launch and major events like Formula One and the Youth Olympic Games.
It is shortsighted to claim that an hourly hotel will encourage [...]

There has been a huge spike in activity in the investment sales market in Singapore during the second quarter this year.
According to property consultancy CB Richard Ellis, total property investment sales in the period so far have amounted to some S$954 million.
The amount is up by more than three times from the previous quarter.
CBRE said [...]