Non-landed private home owners profit from resales

Non-landed private home owners pocketed a total of $107 million in gross profit, from quick resales over the five quarters of Q1 2012 to Q1 2013.

Noting that the property market has "rebounded very strongly", high property prices - the overall private residential price index is now 60 per cent above the trough in 2009 - contributed largely to the profit in this sector, which includes private condominiums and apartments but excludes Housing and Development Board (HDB) executive condominiums.

In the current bull run, newly completed homes that were resold upon receipt of Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) yielded good returns for purchasers.

For $2 million you can get a freehold landed home

Many home hunters may assume that landed freehold property - the rarest of land titles in Singapore - is way out of their reach.

Not necessarily so.

Fairly small freehold plots in Geylang and MacPherson have been selling for about the price of a suburban condominium.

Developer sales hit new highs on pent-up demand

Developer sales to moderate over the next few months after they hit a record 2,793 units in March, nearly four times the 712 units sold in February, analysts said.

The record figure was due to pent-up demand arising from developers holding back launches in February in the aftermath of January's cooling measures and also due to the Chinese New Year festive period.

Last month's primary market sales figure of 2,793 private homes (excluding executive condos) is the highest since the Urban Redevelopment Authority began releasing developers' monthly sales data in June 2007. The last time the figure came close to this was in July 2009, when developers moved 2,772 units.

Striking a new balance on flat prices

Striking a new balance between keeping new flats affordable yet fulfilling Singaporeans' desires for their home values to rise, is what the Government is trying to find, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Grace Fu, yesterday.

For decades, new flat prices were pegged to resale ones, so that home owners' asset values would grow, she said.

"If we were selling Build-To-Order flats at a much lower price than resale flats, you would find people turning away from resale and then flat prices would be less able to rise," she explained to Jalan Kayu residents at a dialogue.

Radical idea: Remove income ceiling for new Housing Board flats

Not one to shy away from radical ideas for housing policy, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan floats another talking-point suggestion: Do away with the income ceiling for new Housing Board flats.

If he had his way, he would remove the income ceiling for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat to give everyone a shot at living in them, Mr Khaw said in his wide-ranging interview.

Noting that HDB flats are as essential to the Singaporean way of life as national service and hawker food, he said: "I like the idea of every Singaporean, rich or poor, having a stint in HDB living... and not growing up your whole life in a bungalow, for example."

HDB should set the price of public housing: Khaw

HDB should set the price of public housing, rather than take its cue from the resale market. Given that Housing & Development Board (HDB) is the chief supplier of homes.

No longer will HDB let "the tail wag the dog" as it did for decades when it used a market-based approach to price its Build- To-Order (BTO) flats, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan.

This resulted in soaring new flat prices as the resale market spiked 80 per cent over the last six years.

Novena businesses get a Healthy boost

Novena has transformed, from being more of a residential area with private housing and condominiums, into a medical hub in the past few years.

And with the private medical centres and malls that have sprouted up near the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), which has been there since 1909, and Novena MRT station, business is booming.

But things are different on the other side of Thomson Road, where quiet nostalgia is being pushed out by the busy new.

London properties getting more attractive for Singapore Buyers: Survey

London properties near underground rail stations or universities are high on the wish lists of Singapore investors, according to a new survey.

But it also found that while location is important, investors here still want value for their money and are looking for yields of between 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent in the British capital.

No delays in BTO flats construction so far: Khaw

There have been no delays in BTO (Build-To-Order) flats construction timelines so far, with a further tightening of foreign labour, even as the Housing and Development Board (HDB) girds itself for the changes.

To that end, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament yesterday that HDB will consider replacing contractors unable to cope with the tighter policies.

Grange Road properties still in the spotlight

Grange Road Properties like the Spring Grove condominium which could undergo a $1.045 billion collective sale has put the spotlight on other residential blocks in the same street.

The high-end sector has been down in the dumps for months, so the prospect of a big payday for Spring Grove owners has raised eyebrows among property experts.

Grange Road, like many other prime city neighbourhoods, has come under the pressures of the additional buyer's stamp duty and the risk of more cooling measures.

URA reviewing key index of private home prices

The study, which The Straits Times understands began last year, could involve revising the way the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) quarterly index is computed. It is believed that no concrete decisions have yet been made to overhaul the methodology.

A key indicator of private home prices is being reviewed to ensure that it continues to accurately reflect values in Singapore.

The index was last modified in 2000, after changes in 1992.

Executive condominiums drawing more buyers

Executive condominiums (ECs) have grown more popular with buyers in recent months as a price gap with mass-market condos widens.

The median price of a suburban 99-year leasehold condo unit climbed to $1,073 per sq ft (psf) in the first three months of this year, said property consultancy CBRE.

EC units were 30.6 per cent cheaper - with a median price of $745 psf in the same period. The price gap between ECs and condos has widened significantly, from 18.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, when the EC segment was relaunched. Then, the median price for an EC flat was $748 psf, while the median price for a suburban condo unit was $917 psf.

First-time buyers support non-central condo prices

Amid the latest official flash estimate showing a slower quarter-on-quarter increase in private home prices in Q1 2013 than in Q4 last year, some property consultants believe that the latest cooling package in January will have a more lingering impact than the six preceding rounds.

However, prices in the widely watched Outside Central Region (OCR), home to suburban condos, are unlikely to fall this year given the strength of the first-time home-buyer pool, say some analysts.

Completed condo prices in Central down 3.7%

Prices of completed private apartments and condos fell in February - in contrast to January's rise, according to the latest flash estimate from the National University of Singapore. Analysts note this is in tandem with the sharp slowdown in resale transaction volumes for completed private homes following the Jan 12 cooling measures.

NUS' overall Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI), which tracks prices of completed non-landed private homes, excluding executive condos, dipped 1.4 per cent month- on-month in February, after rising 0.8 per cent for January.