Month: September 2017

We are now in the middle of a massive collective sale fever, and things are taking an impressive, good turn. The benefit here is that the Jervois Garden, which is a condo of around 17 apartments located on the River Valley road is up for sale.

Jervois Garden is set to be sold for around $68 million. Sure, this may not seem like a very good price, but you have to understand that Jervois Garden is a rather small establishment. It can bring in a huge profit for the owners, and that goes to show the sheer value that can be received from the collective sales at this time. Whether it will happen or not, it’s hard to say, but considering the recent collective sale fever, the Jervois Garden sale price can end up being even higher.

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At this time, there is a huge collective sale fever that you can find in Singapore. But there is also a downside here. The DC rates used for the non-landed residential use are very high at this point. They raised with around 13.8%, which is a pretty high increase.
The DC rates are up in almost all the geographical sectors, some with just 6%, while others go up to 29%. The increase seems minimal, but it goes to show that the DC rates are getting pretty high. And yes, the developers have to pay them to enhance the use of some sites, same goes if they want to build some larger projects in there as well.

15 residential estates were put in collective sale, and only half were successful. The DC rate increase does manage to affect even many sales, and the developers do need to raise the price to get a good profit.

Some developers are offering lower prices to get some leasehold properties via a collective, something that does discourage owners to put them for a collective sale. The raise is something expected according to the head of consultancy and research at JLL Singapore. But even if this may not seem problematic, it’s safe to say that there can be some rather problematic situations shortly.

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Holland Village, or Holland V as it is affectionately shortened to by those who call it home, has built itself a reputation as one of the go to places in Singapore when it comes to restaurants and bars. Its popularity is among both expats and locals, something that is reflected in the choice of dining options and watering holes, that range from a 24-hour kopitiam, a market and hawker centre, to many western bars, restaurants and chains – and everything in between. It was not always the case however.

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2017 was a great year from many developers in Singapore, as they received the much-desired BCA Award. In fact, BCA or the Building and Constructions Authority had to issue a record number of awards this year, due to the fact that a greater number of developers strived to provide high workmanship quality and therefore to enhance the way Singapore looks when it comes to buildings and various constructions. On the 13^th of June 2017, no less than 493 developers got their BCA award, for their extraordinary activity involving not only the development work, but also domains like architecture, design, engineering, and construction.

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The pay gap between genders in Singapore saw the last improvements in 2006, not changing ever since

Although we would expect things to change and evolve, there are some aspects that don’t seem to be bothered by the passing of time. For instance, the pay gap between genders has not recorded any change or improvement in the past decade. Just like it has been since 2006, men in Singapore earn more money than women, the gap being of approximately 20% in the favor of men, even though the job requirements are the same. Unfortunately, a gap of 20% is the best case scenario, statistics showing that there are industries where this gap reached 40%, which is a rather significant difference made between genders in the workplace.

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Starting from the next June, the updated Fire Codes released highlighted that all the newly built houses including all the boarding, apartments and private residences should make provisions for smoke detectors and fire alarms. These smoke alarms come in different qualities and levels and a basic smoke alarm costs between 60 to 80 dollars where an additional cost of close to 50 dollars will have to be borne for installation.

The costs associated with fixing these alarms will have to be borne by the buyers. However, the lower-income families, the needy households or the elderly who are in need of financial support will be looked into by the SCDF which is also known as Singapore Civil Defense Force.

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Collective sales are bound to get big at times, but the reality is that this year was the host of some pretty big collective sales to begin with. But nothing seems to beat the recent Tampines Court sale, which ended up at around 970 million Singapore dollars. This is the biggest En Bloc sale for the past 10 years.

This is one of the largest sales since the Farrer Court sale in 2007, which was around 1.34 billion. But there are some reasons why this collective sale was so successful, to begin with. Tampines Court is found on Tampines Street 11, and the plot of land is really large, it has around 702000 square feet.

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