Month: December 2017

When Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in his 2013 National Day Rally speech the government’s plans to relocate Paya Lebar Air Base, few could have foreseen the impact – both good and bad – it would have on so many Singaporeans, from the east of the island to the west. We look at the history of the airbase, and what effects the proposals will have to the different parts, and communities of Singapore.

Paya Lebar Airbase (PLAB)
Building work, on what was originally known as Singapore International Airport, began in 1952 with its official opening being on 20 August 1955. As well as being a hub for Malayan Airways and the birthplace of Singapore Airlines, the airport was most notable for its being a destination for Concord between 1979 and 1980, when British Airways flew there from London Heathrow.

The airport’s location – it was hemmed in by established housing estates, meant that it was always going to struggle to compete in a rapidly expanding air industry. By 1975 the number of passengers going through the airport had risen to 4 million, more than twice the number of just 5 years before, but a new airport was beginning to be built not far away in Changi. When that opened in 1981, Paya Lebar was closed for civil aviation and became a purely military airbase, a transformation that had begun several years earlier.

The closing of the airbase – scheduled to take place from 2030 – will be the final chapter in its short but colourful history.

What the Move Means for Paya Lebar…
First and foremost, the move will free up a massive swathe of land – up to 800 hectares. To put it into context, that is larger than Ang Mo Kio or Bishan. In an island the size of Singapore, that is very significant, coming in the way that it has, and in the area it sits. The prime minister promised that that land would be used to build new homes, offices, factories, parks, living environments and communities.

Another consequence of PLAB’s closure is that the current height restrictions that cover large sections of that part of Eastern Singapore will be relaxed. This will pave the way for the possibility of current low-rise buildings being redeveloped.

…and for Tengah Airbase and its Surroundings
Two existing airbases will take up the slack from the closure of PLAB. Changi Airbase East will have a new base built on its grounds, as well as a fourth runway. It is at Tengah Airbase in the West of Singapore where most disruption will occur however.

The government will acquire 106 hectares of land – approximately the size of the Marina centre – which includes several private lots. These include three fish farms, a nursery, an egg farm and an orchid farm. Nearby Choa Chu Kang Cemetery will see a third of its land taken, meaning that 45,500 Chinese and 35,000 Muslim graves will have to be exhumed.

The expansion of Tengah Airbase, will also mean a section of Lim Chu Kang Road will need to be moved, including almost 2 kilometres of its heritage road section.

New launch condos near Paya Lebar

• Sims Urban Oasis
• Kallang Riverside (Freehold Condo)
• Carpmael Thirty-Eight 

New Launches near Tengah Airbase

• Le Quest
• Lake Grande

Singaporeans are in for a new surprise starting with the month of February 2018, when a new policy concerning vehicles will start being effective. The government will try to cut down the number of vehicles  available in the market to ensure a  0% vehicle growth rate for vehicle.  The policy has as main purpose a significant diminish in the number of cars, which already shrunk considerably in the past years.

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Right now there are a variety of financial associations and even banks that are trying to help their customers avoid major debt. There’s a new ruling that arrives after the new year, and this means you get to have a much better way to deal with red ink or personal loans at this point. The results are really good right now, and if people are going to deal with things like this when the credit exceed six times the income, that can be quite great to be honest.

The idea here is to draw the line in regards to credit limits or any type of insecure credit facilities that would bring in a debt 12 times more than the monthly income. The implementation of the new measure will also mean that a person will no longer be able to take unsecured loans / credits that is more than 12 times their monthly income.

After all, the focus here is on bringing in a sense of financial prudence. Ideally, the means here is to help people spend only what they can afford, not more than that. The process isn’t complex, but it does come with a really good set of ideas and it does bring in front some amazing rewards.

And yes, with the fact that you don’t really get a lot of help from other companies, it’s up to the financial institutions to offer you the guidelines and value that you may need. And yes, here the focus is on helping people stay away from massive debt that would eventually take their homes. That’s certainly something which needs to be avoided and the new measure helps a lot on this regard.

The utilization cap for this is implemented in a progressive manner at this particular time, and that’s very important. After all, the entire idea and support here is to help consumers manage their finances in a better way. It’s certainly not going to be a walk in the park, but it does offer the efficiency and uniqueness that you would expect.

The market analytics have different opinions when it comes to the success of such an initiative. But it will surely work in the long term, at least it will show people that spending more is not good for them. And, after all, it’s things like these that will make the market more powerful, so it’s a crucial aspect to consider at this point. Even if only a few select people will be affected by this, it’s still a step towards in the right direction for sure!

http://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/banks-welcome-new-measures-to-protect-borrowers

Upcoming new launch condo in 2018

• Woodleigh Condo
• Shunfu Road
• New Futura (Freehold Condo)
• Rivercove Residences EC

Existing new launches

• Parc Botannia
• Kallang Riverside (Freehold Condo)
• Sims Urban Oasis
• Highline Residences

End of year bonuses are huge incentives for employees to shine throughout the year, but in recent times, they haven’t been very substantial. However, the forecast has improved following the significant economic growth in Singapore, and it’s the private sector that will reap the most rewards.

The only downside is that bonuses aren’t going to inflate across every sector, but it’s believed that they will slowly hit an incline eventually. Now, even though the Singapore economy has strengthened, bonus size is still reliant on the overall company performance. For instance, if a company is a global outfit, and they only prospered in Singapore but faltered elsewhere, then bonuses have a slim chance of rising.

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Tеn years аgо Bitcoin didn’t еxiѕt. Five years аgо thеу соѕt $12 еасh. In Jаnuаrу thеу were аlmоѕt $1,000 аnd juѕt lаѕt wееk thеу were worth almost $20,000 each. Sinсе Sunday Bitcoin’s price hаѕ drорреd mоrе than $7,000 in thе past dау alone some $5,000 has been wiped frоm thе рriсе ассоrding tо figures frоm CoinDesk.That iѕ a fall of over 32% in a week аnd аlmоѕt 20% in thе past 24 hours, according tо Coinbase figures.

Bitсоin’ѕ rарid ascent hаѕ prompted wаrningѕ from a stream оf рrоminеnt invеѕtоrѕ thаt it hаd rеасhеd bubblе tеrritоrу, whilе thе Bаnk оf Englаnd dерutу gоvеrnоr on Wеdnеѕdау ѕаid invеѕtоrѕ should “dо thеir homework” before investing in the digitаl currency. Hоwеvеr, thе rеаѕоn for thе falling value оf Bitсоin may bе because оf сurrеnt market ѕituаtiоnѕ

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Singapore River

Singapore River may be only just over three kilometres long, but it packs a lot into those three kilometres. Officially it begins at Kim Seng Bridge (though it extends back another two kilometres under the guise of the Alexandra Canal), before making its way via a series of turns to Marina Bay and eventually out into the Singapore Strait.

Throughout the centuries, the river has been the focus of life in Singapore and certainly its trade, and was where Sir Stamford Raffles first landed. His arrival changed the river for ever, like much of the rest of the island, and within a year of stepping foot onto dry land he had ordered the north bank to be drained so it could house the government buildings he had planned. Just a few years later the southern bank followed suit, and a wall and steps built. The importance of the thoroughfare grew rapidly, warehouses sprung up along its banks, and traffic increased markedly. And with it came pollution.

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As we close to an end for 2017, we are receiving some really interesting data about the market. First, we notice that there are a lot of people who are trying to get new homes right now. Not only that, but it’s important to note that the market is moving in the favor of the sellers.

This means the developers don’t have to rush as they continue to launch more units. There are 450 new launch condos released in November but out of these new launches, 47 of them were from previously launched projects. As you can imagine, this has definitely managed to reduce the buying options. This also contributed to some rather moderate sales figures.

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Singapore job prospects are improving and this is a very good thing to have. However, there are lots of residents that are still being left hang out to dry due to some changes on the market. The job seekers are challenged by the fact that right now it’s hard to get new positions even if you didn’t have a job for quite some time now.

The observers are trying to identify the issue as the economic growth is prevalent yet there are still some issues like these that are plaguing the market. According to Irvin Seah which is a DBS economist, the Singaporean rise for long term unemployment rate is a bit problematic.

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One great thing about the market is that the supply of state land is setting this at a very good level, in fact the land supply is maintained steady. This is a good thing, because there has been quite the hassle about collective sales. With the aggressive ongoing En Bloc sales, government is worried about the over supply risk on the property market.

In the first six months of 2018, under the GLS (Government Land Sales), several land parcels which includes site for private residential development, executive condos and commercial developments will be released for bidding, this will generate up to about 8045 units and some commercial space of 63,960 square metres. This figure is rather close to the number of units released last year. About 8100 units of residential apartments were released in 2017 (2nd half of the year).

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For a small island, Singapore has a rather confusing number of definitions when it comes to dividing up its land. There are the town names, the districts, the planning regions all which cover the same areas, many overlapping, and choosing the correct one very much depends on the situation or the context in which you are talking. One set of definitions that perhaps causes the most confusion, is the core, the rest of central and the outside central regions. They may sound like an additional layer of complexity to the Singapore map, but they make a difference on many things – rental and property prices for one, and are in fact fairly straight forward once you know exactly what they are.

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Developments involving the tax office and residents of Tampines Court in September of this year (2017), appeared to give home owners facing en bloc sales encouragement, but if anything, it highlights the potential problems facing such people.

It is far too easy to think of an en bloc sale for your private condo as a good thing. A sudden (often unexpected) windfall that lands in your lap and bank account. That is not always the whole story however. As well as the issue of severing your emotional ties with your home and neighbourhood, the financial side of things is not always as clear cut as people think. The overriding reason for that is seller stamp duty (SSD).

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At this particular time, the Singapore dollar is mostly flattened when it comes to the overall value. But as you can imagine, things may end up changing in 2018, as the MAS is expected to bring in a different approach to the exchange range. It’s also said that they may even tighten the policy. For now, the neutral stance worked great, but it may be a bit more aggressive starting with next year.
In case the MAS inflation is picking up, then the overall monetary policy has to be changed as fast as possible. The electronics manufacturing is boosting the local economy, among others. And even if the growth will decelerate, the experience will be bringing in a lot of external factors that go over and over.

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If you spend the vast majority of your time on the Internet, you’re already sick of hearing about Bitcoin: that its price sky-rocketed since the beginning of the year, that people trade and invest in it and that you should do so, too.

But what exactly is this Bitcoin everybody’s talking about and what’s with this hype surrounding it? Let us drop the knowledge-bomb on you.

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From time to time, there are particular estates that enjoy a high level of popularity right from the start. This is what it happens in the case of Eunos Court, even though homes in this area are put out for sale the second time this year.

At the moment, there are 748 units available in this residential area and there are no less than 2,166 applicants for them. This means that there are 2.9 applicants for every flat in the building, which is quite a competition. What happens here points out toward the fact that people still appreciate estates that are mature, to the detriment of recent ones.

But, it is worth mentioning that this is just an exercise, to see how Built-to-Order or BTO units are doing in the current market. Eugene Lim, the key executive officer at ERA Realty, said that the numbers were no surprise as they were expected to have such a response from the market. Their expectancies were driven by another exercise of the kind that took place in August, where the rate of applicants went up to 1.7 for every available flat, so it was not such a huge difference back then either. Also, from all the units available at Eunos Court, the flats with four rooms were considered most desirable, as the subscription rate for them was the highest, 3.4 times higher to be more precise.

So what makes so many people want to move to Geylang?

According to a spokesman from PropNex Realty, people love the fact that the Eunos MRT station is close by, plus the lack of newly built flats in the area make the ones that are available rather sought after. It was also noticed that people who are looking for homes the second time in their lives or those that would like to get something better and upgrade their lifestyle prefer towns like Geylang and Tampines, which are more mature.

Even if current numbers are great, it is not the Eunos Court that holds the record in this category. There was another BTO sales exercise in May, involving Dakota Breeze, which enjoyed a rate of 5 applicants for every unit, which is more than impressive. In other words, 3,100 people wanted to put their hands on the available 670 flats, so the competition was quite high. Northshore Edge, the BTO project of Pungol, is next on the list, having 388 units consisting in flats with 4 and 5 rooms, disputed by 823 keen homebuyers. This new project will be built by using the latest technology, more precisely prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction, and state-of-the-art materials, to diminish its completion time. This is the first time when this particular technology will make most of the available flats, which is a proportion of 80%.

Those that wait for their flats to be ready hope that this new building method will give them the chance to live in their new apartments sooner than usual or at least in the designated time frame. When it comes to the quality of the process, everybody hopes that the final product will respect all the safety standards.

You can read up more on the BTO exercise from the article below,
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/eunos-court-is-top-draw-in-bto-exercise

Preferred mature housing estate? Come, take a look at some of the new launch condos in these area.

• Sims Urban Oasis 
• The Alps Residences
• Highline Residences
• Principal Garden
• Upcoming Margaret Drive Condo

Things aren’t always running smoothly right from the start, as the owners of the How Sun Park found out. They tried to sell the estate that spreads over 54,942.7 square feet and hold 20 townhouses of three stories each on several occasions but did not manage to reach the desired numbers. It is said that the third try is always the luckiest, so the owners of this estate did not lose their hope but decided to put it up for a collective sale. And they did great the third time, selling the estate for no less than $81.09 million, which means approximately $4.05 million for every unit.

How Sun Park was purchased by a unit of the well-known SingHaiyi Group, putting in the estate’s former owners twice the amount of money they would have received for the individual sale of every unit. So, while collective sales are not the best choice all the time, for the How Sun Park estate this worked out more than okay. About 3 months ago was the latest transaction for this estate, which barely went under $1.9 million. This means about $1,092 for every square foot, which also includes the $2.92 million charge for future development.

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