Published February 3, 2011


Several showflats to stay open this weekend
Developers change tack as more foreigners are buying private homes in Singapore

By UMA SHANKARI

(Singapore)

A HANDFUL of developers - including Far East Organization and CapitaLand - will open showflats of residential projects they are currently marketing to prospective buyers over the long Chinese New Year weekend.


Traditionally, developers here close their showflats over the Chinese New Year holiday period as sales tend to be extremely slow. But this is now changing as more foreigners are buying private homes in Singapore, market watchers said.

Far East Organization, which is currently marketing more than a dozen residential projects, will close its showflats to walk-in visitors on Thursday and Friday, the first two days of Chinese New Year.

But the developer will host prospective buyers who have made appointments.

'Our sales hotline remains open and manned throughout this Lunar New Year holiday period. For customers interested in visiting our show galleries over the public holidays, we are happy to make appointments to host them,' said Chia Boon Kuah, chief operating officer for property sales at Far East Organization.

BT understands that some of these customers come from overseas markets - such as China - with the intention of buying property in Singapore. Far East has a sales office in China, which allows customers to make appointments to visits showflats here with little fuss. Last year, Far East also hosted overseas visitors over the Chinese New Year period.

In fact, the developer is confident that property buyers will be out in force over the long Chinese New Year weekend; it plans to officially launch its 561-unit Waterfront Isle in the Bedok Reservoir area on Saturday.

Similarly, a spokeswoman for CapitaLand also said that all of the developer's showflats will be open for viewing (but only by appointment) during the long Chinese New Year weekend.

CapitaLand is currently marketing two residential projects with more than 1,000 units each: The Interlace and d'Leedon.

City Developments will also open its showflats to prospective buyers who make appointments, BT understands.

But other developers are sticking to tradition and keeping their showflats shut on all four days of the long Chinese New Year weekend.

UOL Group, for example, said its Spottiswoode Residences showflat will be closed on all four days, from Thursday to Sunday.

One developer BT spoke to said it might make more sense for projects that target foreign buyers to keep showflats open over Chinese New Year.


Source; /www.businesstimes.com.sg

Published January 13, 2011

More developers see higher prices for new home launches
Property market's Future Sentiment Index rose to 5.7 in Q4 from 4.8 in Q3

By EMILYN YAP

(SINGAPORE) Developers' outlook for the property sector turned rosier in the fourth quarter last year, with a larger proportion of them predicting higher prices for new residential launches.

Preliminary findings from the Real Estate Sentiment Index (RESI) point to improved sentiment from the third quarter, when the industry was still coming to terms with the impact of property market cooling measures introduced on Aug 30.

Steven Choo, CEO of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas), gave a preview of RESI results for Q4 at a seminar yesterday. Redas and the National University of Singapore's Department of Real Estate jointly developed RESI.

Based on survey responses so far, the Current Sentiment Index stood at 5.6 in Q4, up from 4.8 in Q3. For this category, respondents rate overall Singapore real estate market conditions now compared with six months ago.

The Future Sentiment Index - where respondents rate overall property market conditions over the next six months - rose to 5.7 in Q4 from 4.8 in Q3.

'We've actually seen a rebound,' Mr Choo said. 'We think it is an accurate reflection of our members' take on the market.'

While the index readings rose in Q4, they did not surpass the levels seen in Q1 and Q2.

Developers were also asked for their take on the primary residential market, and a majority of the respondents thought more launches and moderate price increases were possible.

In Q4, 60 per cent of respondents believed that unit prices would be moderately higher. In Q3, just 12 per cent thought so.

Some 76 per cent of respondents in Q4 also expected moderately or substantially more units to be launched, compared with 44 per cent in Q3.

A developer, who declined to be named, suggested that good take-up for several big launches in Q4 buoyed sentiment. Spottiswoode Residences, Waterview and Robinson Suites were some which reported strong sales.

Some industry watchers also reckoned that the sector's confidence grew as the impact of the tightening measures became clearer.

A Hong Leong spokesman told BT: 'While we took a cautious outlook immediately following the August 2010 cooling measures, buyer demand continued to remain strong for the group's various projects.' Low interest rates and liquidity in the market contributed to the demand, he said.

Credo Real Estate managing director Karamjit Singh also said: 'Like with any announcement, it takes at least a month or two for the dust to settle.'

Even so, improved optimism does not mean that the measures had no effect - there is still 'a sense of caution in the air', he stressed.

In the ongoing Q4 RESI survey, 69 per cent of respondents identified demand-side measures from the government as a potential risk to market sentiment.

Although this proportion is less than Q3's 83 per cent, it is still big enough to make state intervention the second most feared risk.

A possible slowdown in the global economy was the industry's top worry - 70 per cent of respondents said in Q4 that this was a potential risk. This is markedly higher than the 56 per cent a quarter ago

Source: www.businesstimes.com.sg

Published November 29, 2010

Good take-up seen at home launches
CapitaLand sells 48 units at d'Leedon preview


By EMILYN YAP


(SINGAPORE) Property developers continued to log sales at their residential projects over the past week.


During the weekend, CapitaLand sold 48 units at d'Leedon - where Farrer Court used to be - for an average price of $1,680 per sq ft. It previewed the project only to former Farrer Court owners and 266 households visited the show gallery.

Units sold included one-plus-study units, two-bedders and three bedders. The former residents were able to choose from 200 units of various sizes across all floors in two towers.

The 99-year leasehold d'Leedon will have 1,703 apartments spread over seven towers and 12 semi-detached houses. Official sales will start this Thursday.

'We are very happy with the sales response,' said CapitaLand Residential Singapore CEO Wong Heang Fine. 'We expect more response from owners who could not make it for this preview.'

Another developer, UOL Group, has sold a total of 252 units out of 320 launched at the freehold Spottiswoode Residences. Selling prices ranged from $1,720 to $2,270 psf.

Sales at the project near Tanjong Pagar have been brisk. It was first launched about two weeks ago and 130 units were taken up during a three-day preview, out of 150 released then. The highest price achieved for those 130 units was $2,150 psf.

Over at Tampines, Sim Lian Group has sold 375 units at Waterview at an average price of $838 psf. It has launched 500 units in the 99-year leasehold project so far.

Sales have risen from last Monday, when the developer said that it sold 332 units.

Weekend sales figures for both Spottiswoode Residences and Waterview were not available. It is therefore unclear if the pace of home buying has slowed after more measures to keep the property market stable were announced last Thursday.

Concerned that hot money and low interest rates would send private home prices rising too quickly, the government pledged to release more land next year. Sites which can yield a record 14,310 new homes will be available under the H1 2011 land sales programme.

On Saturday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan also stressed that the government will introduce more measures to curb property prices if necessary.


Source: http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/

Published November 17, 2010


UOL to release 80 more units at Spottiswoode


UOL Group said it is releasing another 80 units at its Spottiswoode Residences for the project's official launch today after finding buyers for 130 of the 150 units released last week during the project's preview.


The units sold thus far have achieved prices ranging from $1,720 psf to $2,150 psf. Four of the project's seven penthouses were sold, with one fetching $1,850 psf.

'Of the buyers, 86 per cent were Singaporeans who snapped up the higher-priced units which command sea views. They include doctors, professionals, bankers and businessmen . . . ' UOL said.

The freehold 36-storey development comprises 351 apartments - mostly one- and two-bedroom apartments. It is near Outram MRT Station.

The 130 units sold include about a dozen bought by former owners of apartments in the two developments that used to stand on the site - Spottiswoode Apartment and Oakswood Heights.

UOL acquired the two adjoining sites through separate collective sales in 2007. It paid $740 psf per plot ratio for Oakswood Heights; no development charge was payable for this site.

UOL bought the next-door Spottiswoode Apartment site for $732 psf per plot ratio including a development charge based on an earlier media report.


Source: www.businesstimes.com.sg

05:55 AM Nov 12, 2010

Property developer UOL Group will release 100 units of its Spottiswoode Residences project for preview today.

UOL expects the units to fetch about $1.05 million for a one-bedroom apartment to $2.67 million for a three-bedroom unit. This works out to about $1,700 to $2,100 per square foot.

The sizes for the one- to three-bedroom apartments vary from about 600 square feet to about 1,400 square feet.

UOL said it might retain some units for later sale due to potential price upside stemming from plans to turn Tanjong Pagar into a waterfront neighbourhood when the lease for the nearby port expires.

The 351-unit condominium at Spottiswoode Park Road, comprising a single-storey block, is expected to be ready by May 2014.

Source: www.todayonline.com

Published November 2, 2010


Developers eye project releases before holidays
CDL sells 112 units at its 150-unit Glyndebourne condo on Dunearn Rd

By KALPANA RASHIWALA


(SINGAPORE) As City Developments (CDL) announced yesterday that about 75 per cent of the 150 units at its freehold Glyndebourne condo have been sold since the preview began on Friday, some other developers are rushing to try to release projects before the year-end holiday season sets in.

UOL Group is expected to preview the freehold Spottiswoode Residences condo next week, and the price is expected to be about $2,000 per square feet (psf). About 90 per cent of the 351 units comprise one-bedroom, one-bedroom-plus-study and two-bedroom apartments.

The project, a 36-storey tower, is next to Spottiswoode Park, a green lung in the area, and close to Tanjong Pagar, which is slated to be transformed into a new bustling waterfront district after the container terminals in the vicinity eventually move out.

The Tanjong Pagar Railway Station site is also expected to be redeveloped after Keretapi Tanah Melayu vacates the site under a historic land-swap deal between Singapore and Malaysia announced in September.

Over at Robinson Road, agents are said to be gathering interest for the freehold Robinson Suites at prices ranging from $2,300 psf to $3,300 psf. The 42-storey project, to be developed on the VTB Building site, comprises 167 apartments and three ground-floor shop units. All the apartments are either one-bedroom-plus-study units or two-bedders. Unit sizes start at 484 sq ft.

The developer - a consortium whose shareholders include Cheong Sim Lam (whose family developed International Plaza), Fission Holdings, Tan Koo Chuan and Saw Pik Kee - is pitching the project as the 'first-ever freehold apartments along Robinson Road'.

CapitaLand, meanwhile, is getting ready to release the first phase of its 1,715-unit condo on the 99-year-leasehold Farrer Court site. The 36-storey Zaha Hadid-designed project will feature one to four-bedroom apartments, penthouses and six pairs of strata semi-detached houses.

In the mass-market segment, Sim Lian is said to be gunning to release Waterview, a 99-year-leasehold condo comprising 696 units at Tampines Ave 1/10 facing Bedok Reservoir, as soon as it gets all the necessary approvals from the authorities.

The project will comprise two, three and four-bedroom apartments and penthouses. The average price is expected to be in the $820-920 psf range.

Meanwhile, CDL said yesterday it sold 112 units at its 150-unit Glyndebourne condo on Dunearn Road between Friday and Sunday.

'All one-bedroom-plus-study, two-bedroom and three-bedroom-plus-study units have been snapped up. A wide spectrum of other unit types was also sold, including 10 out of the 23 penthouses,' CDL said in a statement yesterday.

Seventy per cent of the buyers are Singaporeans, with permanent residents and foreigners from Malaysia, the United States, Indonesia, China, India, Myanmar, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Brunei making up the remaining 30 per cent.

CDL began previewing the project on Oct 29 on behalf of its London-listed hotel unit Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, which owns the freehold site on which the condo will be developed.

The Copthorne Orchid Hotel Singapore on the site will be closed at the end of March 2011 to make way for the redevelopment of the site into Glyndebourne.

CDL said the 112 units sold were at prices ranging from $1,900 to $2,350 psf, or at an average price of about $2,100 psf.

Source: http://www.businesstimes.com.sg