Month: August 2018

Ever since the High Speed Rail (HSR) link between Singapore and KL was announced at the back end of 2016, the government, not to mention the sales and marketing departments of the developers in Jurong have been telling us what an incredible impact it will have on the area. Now that the project has been postponed (the rail link has been shelved, not knocked on the head permanently) there is understandable concern by both developers and those who have recently purchased or are thinking of purchasing properties in the area. Are their worries justified? Is there more to investing in Jurong than just the HSR?

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Kuala Lumpur to Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) has been under discussion for a while now. On August 11, Malaysia’s Economic Affairs Minister met with the representatives of Singaporean government. The detailed report mentioning the discussion of the meeting will be presented to the Malaysian government within this week. The subject of the meeting was finding solutions of the current HSR issues.

The Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, wrote a letter on 23 July inviting for this discussion. The Singaporean government accepted the invitation hence the meeting of August 11.

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Private properties offered for rent in the Airbnb-style, meaning that people can choose to rent them on short terms like a few days or weeks, are quite popular. This enables people not just to visit various parts of the world at smaller prices, but also to get a better feel for the local atmosphere of each place they visit. Thus, the URA wants to make things easier by setting a new rule for this type of rental services. So, according to the new proposal made by the URA recently, concerning short-term stays in rented private units, owners can do so only if the owners of a development reach an agreement in a proportion of 80% the allowance of this kind of rentals. In other words, Airbnb-style rentals can be made in a development only with the consent of most owners and if the development is registered for such a purpose.

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Top banks in Hong Kong are now raising their mortgage rates and this, in turn, is posing pressure on borrowers. Impact of this hike can be observed in terms of the slowdown in the most expensive and desirable property markets around the world.

Hang Seng Bank, Bank of China and HSBC Holdings recently said that the new mortgage rates would be implemented from coming Monday and the standard chartered announced the same move for Tuesday. Note that, generally mortgages in Hong Kong are either related to prime rate and interbank offered rate of Hong Kong.

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The Changi Airport Terminal 4 tries to make it easier for parents to spend their time at the airport. And they added a new playground to make the process simpler and easier than ever before for all kids. The new structure also has a name, it’s called Chandelier and it has around 10 KM of rope, it’s also supported by around 15 tons of steel too. It seems to admit up to 50 people at a time.

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The High Speed Rail from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore was quite uncertain, however the government has now acquired the land that you can find the Raffles Country Club (RCC) on right now. According to the government, the Raffles Country Club will be the second one that will be removed in order to bring the High Speed Rail. Other than this, the Cross-Island Line (CRL) is also one of the reasons that the government acquire the RCC. The site will be the depot for the CRL in the west of Singapore.

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According to the plan of the Housing and Development Board, until the second quarter of 2020 more than 2400 blocks found in the administration of the board will benefit from green solar energy. This is possible due to the fact that HDB just picked the new winner for its solar leasing tender, the third of this kind. Thus, under the SolarNova programme, SembCorp Solar Singapore Pte. Ltd and Kurihara Kogyo Co., Ltd (Consortium) will make sure that the selected buildings will have green energy coming from solar photovoltaic panels. The majority of the buildings included in this program will residential blocks, more precisely a number of 848, but there will be some government sites as well that will get solar energy, about 27 of them.

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The biggest disadvantage of living in an urban area is, in most cities of the world, the lack of green spaces. It is true that cities have parks, but let’s face it, they don’t bring too many benefits, except for those that actually live next to the parks. In Singapore, things enjoy a different approach for years, as greenery was part of the city’s living areas and this part is only going to get better in the future. According to the Housing and Development Board, the future towns of Singapore will be even greener, providing an enhanced quality of life and the chance for a better health for its inhabitants.

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Analysts report that, as a response to latest property measures, developers may cut down the prices by 10% for all new launches. While downgrading stock ratings, many developers have already reduced the average selling prices by 5 to 10%; however, they also believe that it is too early for developers to decay pricings for their projects.

Derrick Heng, a property analyst, after reducing the price by 5 to 10% in his projections revealed that although they are expecting single-digitmoderation in earnings before interest and tax margins for most properties, still, no developer is losing money with current reductions. Derek Tan, DBS Bank Analyst on the other side said that it is important for all developers to reduce the prices by at least 5% to maintain the lower loan to value limits and higher additional buyer’s stamp duty. Tan also included that although these potential write-offs on land value balance sheets do not show any near-term risk, however,if the sales momentum falters, it may emerge for few years ahead.

Note that, DBS Group Research has currently dropped its primary home sales forecast by 25 to 30% because, during post-cooling measures, the investors are believed to stay out of the market. A recent report shows thatDeutsche Bank also trimmed developers’ ASP estimates by 5 to 7% along with 10 to 30% reduction in transaction volumes for the year2018-19.

Now, there are two things of common interest; first, lowered ASP forecasts for all upcoming project launches and second, an analysisfor real drop of current transacted prices that will have a directimpact on price index considering all private residential transactions. Although, most property consultants do not find any clue for these happenings; still they have reduced the growth forecasts between 8 to 12 % for price index as compared to the previous range of 8 to 20%. It is important to mention that prices have already increased by 7.4% during the firsttwo quarters of the year. Presently, consultants are less optimistic about sale volumes as the estimates have changedfrom previous 8000-12600 units to 6000-9000 units.

Last week, Oxley disclosed that its estimated asset value exposure to Singapore residential market goes up to 20.6% of the overall outstanding gross development value of projects on a globallevel. Considering the cooling measures, even after adjusting the price expectations for few projects, Oxley is still looking for a 12 to 19% net margin on upcoming new launch condos.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/latest-curbs-could-see-developers-lower-prices-up-to-10

It has been brought before Parliament that aging, vacated schools can be turned into residential housing for elderly citizens.  Many believe this would allow those who are aging to live in a residential environment and enjoy their later years.

These schools are large and therefore would be perfect for redevelopment for many housing units and common spaces for tenants and their guests to congregate.  That said, there would be a significant cost to redevelop these schools into housing for the elderly.  It has been argued that the cost of these renovated properties would be turned over to the tenants, making these projects quite affordable for developers.

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You must be aware of the fresh property cooling measures that came into the market recently on July 6. With this new sale launch for condominiums, around 50 out of 80 apartments of Daintree Residence were sold by this weekend. At Toh Truck Road, the phase one sales of a 327 unit project were observed with an average selling price of 1,710 dollars per square feet. As per SP Setia, an international developer, the price for this Singapore property went below 1800 dollars per square feet due to the special 5% discount added on this weekend launch.

Note that, during these weekend sales; most of the projects were two-bedroom apartment type and they were sold somewhere between 1.06 million dollars to 1.4 million dollars. On the other side, the three bedroom living spaces were sold at a price range of 1.71 million dollars and 2.13 million dollars. Developers also revealed that 9 out of the 10 buyers during weekend sales were citizens of Singapore.

Neo Keng Hoe, general manager of SP Setia group,considered this 63% take-up rate very encouraging while saying that “The location near Beauty World MRT Station is now of great interest for most buyers as they have not seen any new condominium launch in this area for past many years.”He also added that by considering the impact of higher launch prices, the company is now looking for the release of a few balanced units. These price shifts are expected for few other developments as well, especially at the Downtown Line.

Research Head of Colliers International at Singapore, Ms.Tricia Song said that the property price expectation might get tempered by huge extend due to the latest cooling measures and there are least chances of rising for near term. By considering the hike in a loan to value ratio tightening and Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty, many analysts were already making estimates about price tags for properties at Daintree. They have revealed few possible alternatives as per their market observations, andit says that the price for properties at Toh Tuck Road and Goodluck Garden may rise in near future whereas they are expecting fall in prices for the Beauty World area properties.

Note that, The Creek @ Bukit was sold last year with a selling price of $1630 per square feet; whereas  S P Setia paid $265 million dollars for Daintree site in the last year;  and this translates to $939 psf ppr for the land purchase price.

To find out more, visit the link here,

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/50-daintree-residence-units-sold-at-launch

Preferred freehold condo? Mont Botanik Residence is another new launch development in the nearby Hillview Estate.

Although one collective sale bid is expected to launch by this week, most of the rest are paused due to surprising cooling measures of residential properties in Singapore.

In a recent interview, the marketing agents revealed that several factors are going to play an essential role in the upcoming collective sale attempts and the most important ones are price expectations of homeowners, location as well as the size of the site to be sold. Note that, Government has made an announcement recently on 5th July regarding cooling measures for local property market so that price changes can be aligned with the economic fundamentals.

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Due to little or no land plots available for building, executive condos have developers taking notice of areas in Canberra Link and Anchorvale Crescent. These two areas are under the government land sales program. Land is in high-demand for Singapore condos that will be nearby the future MRT station which is still under construction.

There are a total of 4 sites that could easily create around 1,900 residential units:

• On Canberra Link
• On Anchorvale Crescent
• On Clementi Avenue
• On Jalan Jurong Kechil

Jalan Jurong Kechil is up for sale and under the Confirmed List while the site on Clementi Avenue is under the Reserve List. Anchorvale Crescent has been released for application under the Reserve List and Canberra Link is under the Confirmed List of H12018 GLS program.

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