On 15 April 2019, the Urban Redevelopment Authority released the latest figures of housing sale in Singapore. The URA obtains these statistics through periodic surveys conducted among licenced housing developers.
Month: April 2019
2 New Freehold Development in Bartley
On 15 April 2019, the SingHaiyi Group announced the opening of showflats for public viewing for two of their ongoing freehold condominium projects in Bartley. The announcement, made at a media gathering at 16 Tai Seng Street, revealed that the show flats would be open for viewing on 18th April 2019 onwards.
The first showflat is for the upcoming Gazania condo. This project is being developed in How Sun Drive. The Gazania has been designed to accommodate 250 flat units in a layout consisting of seen five-storeyed buildings. The flats will range for one-bedroom to four-bedroom units and are scheduled for completion towards the end of 2022. Currently, the estimated prices for the 440 sq ft one-bedroom flats begin at $1 million. The 1800 sq ft four bedroom penthouse flats are likely to be up on the market at a starting price of approximately $3.3 million.
No Rise In Interest Rates, Says Fed
Amidst the slow economic growth in the US, the Federal Reserve has announced that interest rates will not rise throughout 2019. After a meeting which lasted for 2 days, the monetary policymakers decided that the interest rate is going to remain at 2.25% – 2.5%. The Fed also made an announcement that by September, the 3rd Quarter of 2019, they will not be decreasing their bond portfolio. The main reason for this is to ensure that the borrowing rates will be kept low.
Before now, the feds had raised the interest rates four times last year and up to nine times since 2015. By indicating that there will be no further rate increases for 2019, the Fed foresees that there might be a rate increases in year 2020 and likely none in the year of 2021.
The Selegie Centre to undergo en-bloc sale
The Selegie Centre, located in district 7, is a development consisting of a number of 25 apartments and 33 shops. It appears that the Peak Tower Corp managed to get its hands on the development, after paying the price of $120 million. Thus, the owners of apartments and shops in this building can expect to get anything between $1m and $12m once the transaction completes. The truth is that it wasn’t easy for this development to sell en-bloc. This is the third time such a sale is attempted and, in the end, it turned out to be a successful one as well.
The development has an age that is worth being taken into consideration, so it will need a bit of care and attention in order to reach its potential. M. Thomas, the sales committee chairman, stated that the building requires a good amount of repairs and it was really the best time for it to be brought back to life in a different way. The committee believes that the transformation of the Selegie Center will turn this development in a landmark and will benefit the outlook of the precincts existent in Little India and Tekka.
The center did its job properly for the past 30 years, since it first emerged on the landscape of district 7, at the junction formed out of the Mackenzie and Selegie roads. The location of the development is very good, as there are three different MRT stations within a walking distance from it. We are talking about Little India, Dhoby Ghaut, and Rochor MRT stations. At this moment, the development has a total number of 10 stories and was built on the spot that used to be an important transportation hub between the 50s and 60s.
What’s the future of the Selegie Centre? The buyer and, implicit, the winner of this bid, Peak Tower Corp, think about building either a hotel or a commercial center in its place. Backed up by a successful Indonesian developer and industrialist, there are high chances for the company to come up with a beautiful modern project in the place of the old Selegie Centre. For both the people residing in the area and those commuting through his part of Singapore, the new development will definitely be a pleasant change of background. It is nice to see old buildings transforming into new and modern ones, which are more capable of answering to the current needs and requirements of the city.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/selegie-centre-sells-en-bloc-for-120-million