Property rental markets are favouring tenants

The residential leasing market is gradually turning to favour tenants, even as there is likely to be strong demand over the next half a year.

The rental market was buoyant in the third quarter of the year. There were 15,083 rental transactions - a record number and an 11.6 per cent increase from the previous quarter.

This was attributed to factors such as the 5.1 per cent growth in GDP for Singapore year-on-year, lower unemployment rates, and foreign nationals bringing forward plans to relocate here in light of the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) which will take effect next August.

The FCF will require every company with more than 25 employees to advertise job openings on a new government-sponsored job bank before applying for a new Employment Pass (EP).

While the framework applies to jobs with monthly salaries below $12,000, "it is foreseen that from the start of next year, the number of overseas nationals in Singapore will decline further, as EP holders will soon face more difficulties in getting approvals on both fresh and renewed applications”.

These factors come against a backdrop of higher vacancy rates and slower rental growths. In Q3, 6.1 per cent of private homes, or 17,459 units, were vacant, up from 5.6 per cent in Q2. This came on the back of several big projects such as the 1,040-unit The Interlace on Depot Road, the 429-unit Tree House on Chestnut Avenue and the 302-unit Cape Royale at Sentosa Island getting their temporary occupation permit.

As for rents, the overall index for private residential properties from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed a 0.2 per cent growth in Q3, down from 0.3 per cent in Q2. The average monthly rent of high-end condominiums tracked by Savills was flat at $4.86 per square foot.

Source: Business Times – 26 November 2013

Property investment seminars on CEA radar

Bold claims by property experts of wielding the secret technique of buying homes with no cash outlay or owning multiple properties have proliferated in recent months, as investors look for ways to circumvent the successive rounds of cooling measures. This has inevitably raised alarm bells in some quarters.

Indeed, generating high returns, having the right opportunities identified and served up on a platter, and gaining financial freedom are some of the enticements dangled by newspaper advertisements on a daily basis.

Ranging from a quarter to half page, these advertisements often entice investors to investment seminars by waiving the registration fees for early birds. Investors who attend these seminars are not only drawn in by claims that these experts, who range from authors to enterprise award winners, have made millions from the property scene, but also that they get to waive the registration fees which can cost a few hundred dollars.

According to Yeap Soon Teck, deputy director (licensing), Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), the regulatory body is aware of such property investment companies inviting members of the public to attend seminars on property investment.

"We have conducted checks including on-site inspections of these seminars to ensure the companies comply with the Estate Agents Act," he said.

The Estate Agents Act covers the conduct of estate agency work - including introduction of a vendor to a purchaser or assistance in the negotiation of a transaction between them as well as subsequent work relating to the transaction - in Singapore, even if the property to be transacted upon is located outside the country.

Source: Business Times –23 September 2013

A property billionaire turns bearish

"[...]Up to 5% fall in property prices" is a very bold claim from the Chairman of City Developments Limited (CDL), a leading real estate developer in Singapore. 

Is he trying to talk the market down? Trying to manipulate market prices?

Read the below article and judge for yourself.

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/property-billionaire-turns-bearish-130126516.html

Suburban launches to cross $1200psf

Take heed and get started early if you can. Get your new home now or continue waiting...

Property market stabilising but curbs will stay: Tharman

Property prices in Singapore are starting to stabilise but the Government is not ready to take its foot off the property market brakes, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

"Our intention is to stabilise the market, if possible have some softening of prices," he told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

"Longer term, our intention is to try as best as we can, although it's difficult, to have prices not run away from incomes, which means that on a trend basis, we would like to see some stability in prices relative to median incomes especially."

New HDB ruling on renovation workers

Renovation contractors will be required to hire only certified workers to carry out demolition or hacking works in HDB flats from Jan 1, 2014.

The HDB announced this mandatory requirement yesterday.

It also said that it is collaborating with the BCA Academy to customise a demolition course for renovation workers.

Under existing guidelines, HDB flat owners are required to engage contractors registered with the HDB for any renovation work and they must also obtain HDB's approval before the work begins, particularly if it involves demolition or hacking.

New Complex System Modelling Tool Enhances HDB’s Town Planning Efforts

This is so COOL!!

The Housing & Development Board (HDB) will be signing a Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) with leading European companies Electricite de France (EDF) and Veolia Environnement Recherche et Innovation (VERI) on 14 Jun 2013 during the World Cities Summit (WCS) Mayors Forum held in Bilbao, Spain.

This signing, supported by the Economic Development Board (EDB), marks the beginning of a collaboration to develop a complex system modelling tool that will greatly improve HDB’s current approach towards town planning. Future residents in new towns such as Punggol, Bidadari, Tampines North and Tengah could stand to benefit from this tool’s ability to make effective urban planning decisions that will lead to a better living environment for residents in Singapore.

This computer modelling tool has the ability to simulate various built environments and to recommend an optimal scenario to meet the desired outcome of the living environment. This is particularly useful for town planners because they cannot afford experimentation with actual developments in land scarce Singapore. The tool will reduce the risk of physical trial and error by providing a virtual platform for testing a planned environment before developments are actually implemented.

For example, the computer model can simulate the various new urban solutions introduced to drive energy efficiency, effective waste management, water recycling, rainwater collection, thermal comfort and efficient transportation networks. Planners can then choose the optimal combination of solutions to achieve the desired sustainability targets.

HDB can also test out various housing typologies and determine how best to site the new flats to optimise wind flow, or to minimise heat and glare. The tool can help HDB study the most effective way to place the solar panels on the rooftops, which in turn could influence the way the buildings are orientated and designed.

Besides simulating and modelling ‘hardware’ initiatives, understanding the behaviour of the residents is another important aspect in this research collaboration. The behaviour of residents can have a significant impact on the sustainability performance of the ‘hardware’ initiatives and therefore also needs to be taken into account.

The design of public housing will continue to evolve, with more attention paid to design in order to add character and identity to the towns. New housing typologies will also be introduced to ensure liveable towns even as HDB builds in a high density environment. The complex system modelling tool complements HDB’s design efforts. It is an intelligent tool that will help HDB to derive the best combination of strategies using design, innovative technologies and influencing social behaviour so as to shape a good quality living environment for residents. Overall, it represents a new generation of tools to build smarter cities.

Dr Cheong Koon Hean, Chief Executive Officer of HDB, said: “HDB is pleased to embark on this collaboration with EDF and Veolia to develop this new modelling tool. This is a sophisticated tool that will simulate complex urban scenarios and help HDB planners analyse and determine the best combination of strategies using both design and technological solutions. Ultimately, it will help us create a better living environment that will benefit our residents.”

The WCS Mayors Forum, co-organised by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will be held from 13 to 15 Jun 2013. It will be a platform for over 100 city leaders, international organisations and urban solutions companies to discuss common urban challenges and share best practices in building liveable and sustainable cities.


Source: HDB

Bullish prices for Jurong East condo launch

The upcoming launch of MCL Land's J Gateway in Jurong East with prices in the bullish region of $1,600 per sq ft (psf) is set to test buyers' appetite for suburban homes.

Average prices of homes at the 738-unit development are expected to range from as high as $1,650 psf for a 474 sq ft one-bedder to $1,450 psf for a 1,163 sq ft four- bedder.

One agent said he has received over 100 queries from interested buyers in the past three weeks.

In comparison, developments launched in the area in the last few years are further from Jurong East MRT station - The Lakefront Residences, launched in 2010, is two MRT stops away while Parc Oasis is at Chinese Garden MRT station.

Based on the Government's Master Plan 2008, the 70ha Jurong Gateway encompasses amenities such as the Jurong East MRT station, existing and upcoming malls like Jem, J Cube, Westgate and Big Box, and Ng Teng Fong Hospital.

In due course, a new hotel will be developed in Jurong Gateway - a site there was bought for $238.2 million in November by Resorts World Singapore, a unit of Genting Singapore.

Jurong Gateway is one of two zones - the other being Lakeside - that make up Jurong Lake District.

Other consultants say prices at 99-year leasehold J Gateway are not far off from what other condos are also asking.

Prices of units at Keppel Land's The Lakefront Residences in the Lakeside area are at $1,434 psf for a 495 sq ft unit, and are expected to inch up.

That in turn, might lift resale prices of older condominiums such as Parc Oasis, which are at $1,022 psf for a 1,076 sq ft unit.

Source: The Straits Times –12 June 2013

Register your interest for J Gateway @ Jurong East

Resale Prices of Resale Private Apartments down in May

Resale Prices of resale private apartments down in May amid weak transaction volumes, flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) show.

SRX said its Singapore Property Index (SPI) for resale prices for non-landed private residences eased 0.5 per cent to 175.7 last month from April.

In April, it had edged up 0.1 per cent from March.

Developers upbeat about Executive Condominium market

Developers upbeat about Executive Condominium market segment given the provisional results for yesterday's tender for an executive condominium (EC) site in the Sengkang area, like that for a Woodlands EC site which closed earlier this month, led property consultants to conclude that.

This is despite measures introduced in January to rein in some of the exuberance in the sector and more recently, strong hints from the government that its housing subsidy of up to $30,000 for first-time buyers who pick up an EC unit from a developer, is in for a change. ECs are a public-private housing hybrid.

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.

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.