The only thing that could have worsened the current fluctuations in the economic sector was confusion to seek the best data and somehow, this prospect has now been turned into a reality. Economists are constantly struggling to evaluate the ways in which the breakout of the coronavirus has affected the world economy with the impacts of the former still on its way to strengthen its grip. Economists are constantly on the look-out for hints on the points of growth from the configurations put forward by factory shutdowns, store closures, flight-tracking websites about the fatalities of the disease.
Author: My Exclusive Condo
From Renting to ownership: HDB guides families in buying homes
On June 2019, the Singapore Housing Development Board set up a seven-member Home Ownership Support Team (HST) in a bid to enable families from making a move from renting to buying homes.
Several families have benefitted from the assistance provided by the team. Records show that over 200 rental households have been provided with guidelines and support. Many have already applied for buying out their flats, some have booked or are ready to book new ones. Depending on family size, age and income of the applicant , many are also settling for Build-to-Order houses.
Most citizens of Singapore, the team found out, were interested in making an investment in their homes but they were hesitant to buy flats as they were not aware of the various assistance schemes available. The HST officers have been outlining available schemes to several families since the team was formed, moreover, they are also assisting in preparing necessary documents for applications as well as starting off the application process.
The guidance of the HST does not stop here, they are also assisting the applicants in planning their finances so they may set up a housing budget in order to actualize their homeownership dreams. This has enabled several persons to work out major factors like home loans, education loans, medical expenses and taxes
The HDB’s move has been well appreciated by the people of Singapore. The team has been looking into each applicant on a case-by-case basis to perform a cohesive all-round assessment of their circumstances. The eligibility is determined only after considering all financial factors like existing loans, savings, employment status. The team has been working very efficiently and has been reaching out to interested households through phone, email, house visits, besides using local advertising.
The HST is also working hand in hand with different social service agencies and partners to enable the families not yet financially stable to move closer to the dream of owning a house. A primary reason for setting up the HST was to work with Singapore’s income disparity so that lower-income families too could dream of owning homes.
As of now, the HST has a mission to reach out to 1,000 rental households as an approximate of 50,000 households currently live in public rental flats.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/hdb-team-guides-rental-flat-families-in-buying-their-own-homes
Falling prices of Hong Kong homes in December 2019
The anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong in the second half of 2019 made its impact felt on the country’s economy severely. Among the hard-hit was the property market. Until the country hit a financial crisis, Hong Kong had one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. The December 2019 price index, however, confirmed a 1.7 per cent decline.
This decline came after a sudden marginal gain in November. Data shows that the gain, however, was more a result of mortgage leniency that was brought in to stall the five-month-long decline in the market. Ever since the protests started, HongKong’s economy has been reeling. The tourism and retail industries of the country were first to bear the brunt of the pro-democracy revolution. In addition, the US-China trade dispute had also brought down the markets.
The new Jurong
On January 19. 2020, the Housing Board announced its final plans for the Jurong Lake area under its Remaking Our Heartland (ROH) programme. The area has been under a scheme of rejuvenation since 2011.
Jurong as an industrial town has its beginnings in the 1960s. By the 70s, it had grown to include the resettled areas like Boon Lay, Taman Jurong, Bukit Batok, Bukit Gombak, Hong Kah, Teban Gardens and Yuhua. The huge area was in need of a makeover suitable for the times and was selected for the same in 2011.
HDB resale prices hike surprisingly in the Q4 of 2019 but remain unchanged overall
If reports are to be believed, the prices of Housing Board Resale flats surged by 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019 when compared with the preceding three months of the year and is considered to be the highest increase between quarters since the last year. However, it was stated that even though the configuration of the last quarter was impressive, it failed to modify the overall resale prices of the HDB throughout the entire year. This automatically implies that the prices of 2019 remained static as contrasted against the price drop of 0.9% in 2018 o0ver 2017.
Coming to the future of these flats, HDB is looking forward to releasing a total of about 16,000 to 17,000 units this year and they will be categorized under the Build-To-Order flats. Near about 3,000 descendants of these flats will be launched in Sembawang and Toa Payoh on the occasion of 2020’s first BTO exercise scheduled to be conducted in February itself. Additionally, 3,700 flats will be rolled out in Pasir Ris, Choa Chu Kang, Tampines and Tengah for sale comprehensively around May. Nevertheless, predictions suggest that the flats assigned for sale in Choa Chu Kang will witness a shorter waiting period as opposed to the other locations.
Christie Sun, the head of research in OrangeTee and Tie has asserted that one of the leading reasons that facilitated the stability of the flat prices stemmed from the changes that were recently injected in the policy including the Home Improvement Programme and the one which lets people loan some funds their Central Provident Fund to pay for their newly-bought properties. Market analytics say that this year too will be quiet busy and interesting for the HDB resale sector owing to the policy changes and as a decent portion of the flats would be attaining their minimum occupation period.
These two aspects will generously contribute towards raising the demand of the older flats and relate them as wiser recourses for owners targeting to recuperate their properties. Even if we keep aside the favorable flexibility of purchase, the number of potential home-buyers has also hiked with time due to the availability of housing grants in case of first-time buyers and the option of a higher income ceiling for all the eligible buyers alike. Forecasters are also prophesizing that the prices will probably either stay steady or grow up to 2% for the whole year.
Ismail Gafoor, the PropNex chief affirmed that in 2019, the prices of the HDB resale flats didn’t plunge for the first time since 2012 and therefore, this is being treated as a silver lining amidst the humdrum that has continued across the previous years. The prices are most likely to grow this year because close 25,000 flats will be shifting hands as a result of the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant. Nicholas Mak, the head of ERA Realty is looking positively at the prospects of the current year by at least 1.5 to 2.5%.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/hdb-resale-prices-rise-04-in-q4-but-unchanged-for-2019
Hong Kong Household Hunt
The anti-government protests are gaining momentum and with it the economy of Hong Kong continues to see steep changes. The real estate market, in particular, has seen a tremendous fall since June 2019. Given the current political situation, it will likely worsen in 2020.
In the past few months, over 16,000 rounds of tear gas have been fired by the police to restrain the anti-China protestors. Several vehicles, shops and homes have been vandalised. Hong Kong even cancelled its popular New Year’s Eve fireworks event this year.
Federal rates to stand still for some time according to policymakers
In the latest meeting of 2019, the policymakers of the US Federal Reserve have concluded that the interest rate for 2020 will be on hold for some time now as the central bank is looking forward to introducing fresh new alterations in their monetary policy. The authority was fundamentally meaning to knit-in the changes to facilitate enhanced liquidity in the financial markets and introduce a repurchase facility.
Upcoming EC Sites
The Housing Development Board (HDB) of Singapore has recently made available two upcoming land parcels for executive condominium developments.
EC units bring to residents the dual advantage of both public and private housing as they are built on public plots by private developers. As such while the house ownership eligibility rules, amenity dues and charges remain under the public household system, the units typically feature several facilities such as a recreational clubhouse, gym, swimming and jacuzzi facilities, etc, which is the same as a private condominium.
As of September 2019, any legal resident of Singapore whose household income is $16,000 or above, can apply for purchasing EC units.
One of the two sites made available by HDB is a 184, 85 sq feet plot in Fernvale Lane in Sengkang. This land parcel has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 516,280 sq ft and has the potential to house an estimated 480 flats.
Can an extension for ABSD save the market for residential units?
The City Developments Limited (CDL) has recently called for an extension to the existing timeline for the sale of property in the face of low demands in the market.
As of September 30, 2019, the Urban Redevelopment Authority recorded an estimated 32,000 unsold private residential units in Singapore. Currently, there is a policy in effect which mandates that developers complete construction and have all units sold within a timeline of 5 years of acquiring the land. Failure to do so results in levying hefty fees on the firms concerned.
Given the lull in the current demand for residential units in the market, there is a call for amending the existing policy and to extend the deadline to a time period of seven to ten years for selling off all units in a project.
Faster Economic Growth Predicted for Singapore in 2020
On December 13, 2019, a report from Nomura Holdings revealed that the coming year may be a better one for Singapore economically. The country is expecting to see a faster growth in its annual GDP rate in 2020 than it had this year.
The speculation is that the growth rate for the country’s economy is likely to rise by 1.3 per cent overall. The growth in GDP has only been an average of 0.5 per cent this year.
Though not a huge margin, the rise is looked forward to with much anticipation. A worldwide innovation upswing, including growing international interest for semiconductors, is expected to keep the country’s electronics sector flourishing in the global market. This will also give the Government an opportunity to even out some of the country’s pertinent market risks.
URA is activating Kampong Bugis and River Valley Sites for application
As per the modified regulations of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the process of application for a white site situated in Kampong Bugis and a hotel site right at the heart of River Valley Road has been initiated for the Government to put it up on the reserve list. Interestingly, the sites that were enlisted in the reserve list for the second half of 2019 of the Government Land Sales (GLS) program has been pushed to the former half of the upcoming year.
The primary objective underlying the release of the Kampong Bugis site located at the mouth of the Kallang River to a master developer is to open doors for its architectural developments followed by the implementation of several modern solutions and car-lite ingenuities across the entire district. If reports are to be believed, the circumscribing area of Kampong Bugis that is nearly about 8.2ha can bear up to 4,000 houses and a maximum of 50,000 square meters for miscellaneous purposes including communities, offices, retails and serviced apartments. Taking all of this into consideration, the entire Gross Floor Area (GFA) of the site sums to 390,000 sq. m.
Homebuyers in AMK, Tampines have already gotten into the race of securing larger BTO flats
As per the reports submitted on Monday, buyers who are looking forward to securing properties in the region of AMK are hurrying into the race to procure the bigger and better version of the Build-To-Order flats through the Housing Board Sales Exercise. Ang Mo Kio is hailed as the largest unit-type that has ever been rolled out in the estate and includes an area that can support about 235 four-room flats, and considering the surging demand of the assets, the process has witnessed applications from more than 13 first-time applicants. However, compared to these larger units, the look-out for the smaller three-room flats was incredibly low and drew only two applicants each.
In Tampines, the statistics were quite similar with around 11 applications registered for the 218 five-room flats and 193 five-room flats; nevertheless, in the case of the three-room flats, they did not attract more than three applicants each for the 90 units held up for sale. The newly-flourishing flats of Tengah town too are experiencing an analogous plea where the four and five-room flats were welcomed by two applications for each and the average bid for the three-room units summed to about 0.7, meaning, all the applicants will, without a doubt, receive individual flats.
Apart from this, the other flat units which mostly comprised of two-room Flexi flats couldn’t invite the desired subscriptions and qualified to an average of 0.3 in both Tampines and Ang Mo Kio and 0.1 in Tengah. Therefore, to encourage people to enroll for the two-room Flexi flats, the elderly citizens will be provided with the flexibility to even choose their lengths of the lease. Additionally, applicants who are past 55 years of age can lease the flats for a period of up to 15 to 45 years with periodic increments every five years. Also, on last Tuesday, the BTO released 4,571 flats for sale and was thus undoubtedly qualified as the last and largest BTO sales operation of 2019.
Ruling out the grants for the four-room and five-room flats in Ang Mo Kio and Tampines is expected to start from $451,000 and $508,000 respectively. Another pointer that must be surfaced here is that the sales exercise in concern offered 3,599 units designated under the Sale of Balance Flat scheme that is distributed amongst 14 mature towns including that of Clementi and Bishan and 11 non-mature towns such as Punggol and Bukit Panjang. Even though this sale followed the legacy of National Development, it was accompanied by larger grants and enhanced income ceilings for first-time buyers.
The fundamental reason behind this disparity of demand is now nothing but obvious; because the income ceilings have been stretched, it means now more people will be equipped to procure these flats and hence will naturally resort to the choices that come with larger spaces and enriched comfort. This tendency is also supported by the amount of time made available to the people to make a choice, a factor which is distinct from the previous sale.
For mroe details, visit the page below.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/buyers-make-a-beeline-for-bigger-bto-flats-in-amk-tampines
Hong Kong home prices experience a fall for the 5th month in a row
Taking into consideration the present political discrepancies that the country is going through, the plunge of the prices for private homes in Hong Kong for the fifth month straight in October shouldn’t come as a surprise to however readers; however, the silver lining in this configuration appears to be the rate of fall which is slower when compared to the earlier months. In October, the prices of the flats dropped by 1.3 percent in what is considered to be one of the world’s most expensive property markets while in September, it underwent a fall rate of 1.7%. According to the predictions of Mr. Thomas Lam who is the executive director of property consultancy branch at Knight Frank, the present social and economic status of Honk Kong will reflect themselves in the dipping prices in November and December, but, if lower interest rates are capitalized upon sincerely, it may lend some support to the statistics.
One Holland Village, The Mixed-Use Development To Incorporate Community Spaces, Offices, Retail And Homes
The famous One Holland Village being developed at Holland Drive is going to feature mixed-use spaces, including community buildings, office, retail, 255 serviced units, and 296 residential apartments. Note that the sale for these residences will be launched by November 30th, Saturday.
In this development, the retail store space has been assigned to some big brands, including pharmacy chain Guardian, supermarket Cold Storage, movie theatre The Projector, and a non-profit art as well as culture organization – The Rice Company.
HDB Announced Sale for 8200 Flats, Including 4600 BTO Flats in Tampines, AMK, and Tengah
After the successful closure of previous sales, now Housing Board at Singapore launched another lot of 4571 new Built-to-Order flats. They are open for sale by the end of this year, and this launch is considered to be the biggest BTO exercise for November 12th, Tuesday.
At the same time, 3599 flats are to be sold as per the Sale of Balance Flats scheme. This offer is open for both non-mature and mature estates, including Clementi and Bishan.
With this, the total numbers of flats launched for sale by the year 2019 are 8170, and it is the highest count for HDB this year.