Exclusive Living In Singapore
Long awaited development, JadeScape had its Phase 1 preview last Saturday 22nd September 2018. The good sales response of having more than 300 units sold over the weekend had shown that despite new cooling measures kicking in, new launch condos that are located in a good location are still popular and in demand.
The property market, in the recent past, hasn’t been exactly showing the expected warm results. It was evident in the bidding activity that took place in three tenders for executive condominium (EC) land sites. These tenders closed yesterday. Among these EC sites, Housing Board’s site, located at Canberra Link, emerged out victorious as it received the maximum number of bids.
The month of September didn’t look so good for developers activating in the private property market, as the number of units they managed to sell was significantly lower than the one recorded in the previous months. Thus, if they succeeded in selling 1,724 units in July, recording a drop of 64.3%, and 1,246 units in August, with a drop of 50.6%, in comparison with September when they managed to sell just 616 units so far. According to specialists, this decrease was generated by two factors. First there were the cooling measures of July, meant to slow down the increasing demand coming from homebuyers. Secondly, August brought in the Hungry Ghost Festival, a period in which very many people stay away from making investments in new properties.
A site in Sengkang Central was just grabbed by the joint forces of CapitaLand and CDL
A site with a mixed destination, meaning that it offers both residential and commercial spaces, was just grabbed by a team formed out of CapitaLand and CDL. These two developers spotted the incredible potential of this site and decided that it is worth to join forces and get their hands on the deal. The tender price for this particular opportunity reached the sum of $777.78 million, but considering its location in Sengkang Central and the fact that transportation is great in the area, it is easy to understand that the site has an amazing potential.
The government has just announced (July 5th) that it is increasing ABSD rates while tightening its loan to value (LTV) limits. This has come on the back of a welcomed improvement in the housing market, with many developers preparing themselves for profitable times ahead. Looking behind the headlines however, it is not all bad news, with many buyers being unaffected by the changes.
The debate surrounding Airbnb in Singapore has been raging for a while, and there is no sign that it is going away any time soon. People on both sides of the argument have been taking to social media and the numerous online forums to put over their case, and there is certainly merit to both camps. The government has recently got involved but that has only served to intensify the debate, and if anything, muddy the waters.
The Ministry of National Development just revised the Development Charge
Every half a year, the Ministry of National Development unrolls a consultation with the Chief Valuer on various subjects. The Development Charge, or DC, was among the aspects discussed and the results led to a revision of this particular charge. Thus, the development charge for both the Groups A, which are the commercial developments and B2, which represent the non-landed residential developments, has increased after the previously mentioned consultation. For the other groups listed by the Ministry of National Development, this particular charge remained unchanged, so it will stick to the same values as it did so far.
But, just how much the Development Charge increased from the A and B2 group? For the A Group, representing the commercial developments, the DC values increased, on average, with 2.7%. More precisely, out of the total of 118 sectors available, 41 of them suffered increases ranging between 4 to 16%. Still, this also means that the rest of the 77 sectors will remain unchanged, so the charge will be the same as it was in this case. The biggest increase, of 16%, will be applied to Sectors 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.
The B2 group, however, which is the group of non-landed residential developments, got an even bigger increase. Thus, on average, the developments in these groups will now have to face an increase of 22.8%. In this case, out of the total of 118 sectors, a number of 116 will deal with increases ranging between 12 to 38%. Only 2 sectors will keep its Development Charge unchanged in this particular group. In case you are wondering when these changes will become effective, it is worth knowing that they became active starting with the 1st of March 2018.
All cases that will obtain the Provisional Permission or additional extensions will be subjected to these set rates of the DC. You can find both the revised rates and groups table, adjusted and revised, on the website of the Ministry of National Development, under the form of appendixes. In case owners and developers notice any differences between the DC rates that were calculated for their properties or developments and the values mentioned in the Use Groups table, it is possible to schedule an evaluation meeting with the Chief Valuer. This way, the case will be searched in detail to see which triggered the differences that emerged, according to the active Planning Act.
https://www.mnd.gov.sg/newsroom/speeches/view/revision-of-development-charge-rates-2018
With a hefty investment of over $1.4, a data centre by Facebook is slated to be built in Singapore. It is going to be an 11-storey facility spanning over an area of 170,000 sqm. This first of its kind data centre in Singapore has the potential to offer plenty of job opportunities. The announcement of this data centre was made by the top social media platform – Facebook on 6th September. Fortis Construction has been elected as the general contractor of this project. The reason they are given the responsibility of completing this project is their prior experiences of working together in building different data centres.
Right after the cooling measures on condominium prices that were observed in the month of July, Qingjian Realty has started its work on the Shunfu road. Professionals are designing it with an intelligent estate monitoring system and fully integrated technologies to make it work as a smart home. The developers of this Singapore Condo are planning to set per square foot average price somewhere around $1700.
All good things come to an end, and there is mounting evidence that the latest bout of en bloc fever is drawing to an end. The current cycle of en bloc sales has so far lasted approximately two years, compared to the last one which ran from 2005 to 2007 and continued for three years, so if it is declining it could be indicative of the state of the property market in general.
There’s no secret that online shopping gained a lot of terrain in past years, offering people the chance to find more competitive prices than in brick-and-mortar stores and the comfort of receiving them at home. But, in spite of all these, the Orchard Road shops are still going strong. Instead of facing shortages, the only thing that shrunk in recent times is the available vacancy rates. According to CBRE, the vacancy rates of the Orchard Road shops dropped to 5.6% in the second quarter, which is the lowest rate in the last fourteen quarters. At Q2 of 2016, the rate was then high at 9.3%.
Almost a month ago, some cooling measures were taken to bring down property prices. Ever since, only less than a third of the sale sites have been sold. According to a property analyst, this indicates that the en bloc enthusiasm is over among buyers.
Huttons Asia, Colliers, and Savills are three real estate agencies that reported the lack of sales. There are 30 sale sites among these three agencies combined that have failed to be sold since January of this year.