Metro Holding will launch Singapore residential project this year

Metro Holdings will launch its first Singapore residential project in nearly two decades later this year and plans to further expand its footprint in China, it said yesterday.

A site at Prince Charles Crescent, which Metro is jointly developing with Wing Tai and UE E&C, will go on the market by the end of the third quarter, chairman Winston Choo said at a results briefing.

Effects of Jan property curbs unclear: NUS

A paper from the National University of Singapore's Institute of Real Estate Studies (IRES) argues that it is unclear that the seventh instalment of cooling measures announced in January has had the desired impact of mitigating home price inflation.

It based this on an analysis of its Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) series, which tracks prices of completed non-landed private homes excluding executive condos.

Cooling measures for multiple properties starting to bite

The proportion of private housing loan applicants without any outstanding mortgages continued to rise in the first quarter of this year, according to latest figures from Credit Bureau (Singapore). This suggests that the January cooling package, with measures that discouraged multiple property ownership, is starting to bite, analysts say.

CBS data shows that of the 16,208 Singaporeans and permanent residents granted private home mortgages (including refinancing cases) in the first three months of 2013, 65 per cent did not have any outstanding home loans either for an HDB flat or private home.

Foreigners' share slips in private home deals

The proportion of private home transactions involving foreign buyers (including Singapore permanent residents, or PRs) slipped to 20.8 per cent in April, after recovering to 26.7 per cent in March.

In February, their share dived to 23.3 per cent following the seventh round of property cooling measures that took effect on Jan 12. In January, foreigners had accounted for 28 per cent of caveats lodged for private homes purchased in Singapore. Conversely, Singaporean buyers' share increased, from 72.5 per cent in March to 78.3 per cent in April - highest monthly share in a year.

At least five home launches coming up

Home hunters will have plenty to choose from with an array of upcoming launches planned across the island.

Those keen on the city centre can focus on Corals at Keppel Bay near HarbourFront MRT station and Liv on Sophia near Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. Corals, which has 366 units and is being developed by Keppel Land, is beside the Caribbean condominium.

Keppel Land pricing Corals units at $1800 - $3000 psf

Keppel Land is said to be pricing the initial 100 apartments at its Corals at Keppel Bay condo at between $1,800 psf and $3,000 psf.

The project - being developed on a site with 99-year leasehold tenure starting February 2007 - has a total of 366 units in 11 blocks between four and 10 storeys high.

Nearly 45 per cent of the units are one and two-bedders. Corals at Keppel Bay will have one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments sized between 600 sq ft and 3,600 sq ft in addition to eight penthouses (4,800 sq ft to 7,800 sq ft).

Five plots released for sale set to yield 2,700 homes

Five plots released for sale by the government yesterday could yield more than 2,700 homes. All are 99-year leasehold plots.

The sites were launched by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB) as part of the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme for the first half of the year.

HDB priority scheme still drawing young families

HDB priority scheme are still drawing married couples with children below 16, capitalising on the Housing Board's recent initiative to help them own a home.

At the latest sales launch in March, first-timer households under the Parenthood Priority Scheme (PPS) applied to take up 32 per cent of the Build-To-Order (BTO) flats on offer, said an HDB spokesman yesterday.

Banks' property exposure makes up about 28% of their non-bank loans

Banks' property exposure makes up more than a quarter of their non-bank loans, it was revealed yesterday.

As of March 2013, property-related exposures accounted for 28 per cent of banks' total outstanding non-bank loans, Monetary Authority of Singapore Chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in a written reply.

These exposures comprised housing loans at 17 per cent, and loans to property developers and construction companies, at 11 per cent. Of the housing loans granted, more than 70 per cent were for owner-occupation.