Author: My Exclusive Condo

Quite distinct from the figures of September, October 2019 witnessed a rapid escalation in the number of resales conducted of the Housing Board Flats; this improvement can be solely attributed to the higher grants and stretching of income windows for the first time since the last month. As per the reports submitted by the real estate portal under SRX Property, a total of 2,213 HBD resale flats altered their ownership; this implies the fact that there has been an 18% increase when compared to the statistics of September. Furthermore, if this year’s figures are placed alongside last year’s, one would find that the resale volume has grown by 10.6%. One possible source of this change could be the alterations brought into action recently in the market policies.

Read more

In the past few years, several reports assured that Hong Kong will soon have to let go of its long-held position as Asia’s most influential International Financial controller; but interestingly, the capital has time and again crushed these assumptions. However, this time it seems there is no escape and the prophecy is most likely to come true. For years, this city has maintained its stature because of the flexibility of the financial laws and as a result, encouraged China to accommodate the global markets and draw the leading financial initiators towards it. The present scenario, nevertheless, has a distinct story to relate altogether; today, the number of stocks enrolled under it is five lesser in number when compared with Shanghai and additionally, its wealth management industry parallelly, is witnessing infinite challenges to keep up with the pace of Singapore’s growth.

Read more

It seems that a number of 10 private residences are in luck, as they are about to be modernized according to the latest standards. What does this mean? It means that they will be equipped with special ramps for wheelchair access, lighting for footpaths, and beautiful landscape features among other improvements that will be part of the face-lift process. The Ministry of National Development made the announcement not so long ago. The improvements will have a total cost of $29 million and they are more than welcome. With their help, those homes will not only look better but will also offer upgraded living conditions to their residents.

Read more

It is well-known the fact that self-driving vehicles are one of the major interests of humankind. Since technology managed to develop with incredible speed, the man started to dream about developing vehicles that can drive by themselves. These cars have already been invented. They just need to be approved for being driven on public roads with regularity. For this, a number of safety standards must be met. In other words, extensive testing is needed in order to determine if the used technology is safe enough for the passengers, other traffic participants, and pedestrians alike.

Read more

The Hong Kong government has planned to release data regarding the present condition of the city economy to update to knowledge base of all residents, hoteliers, and retailers.

The market has undergone a 0.4 percent contraction during the second quarter and now by the third quarter, the gross domestic product figures are expected to fall by 0.6 percent. These two repeated falls reveal that Hong Kong economy is now suffering from technical recession. This kind of financial crisis in the Hong Kong market was observed decades ago.

Read more

As per the new rule, Singaporeans above the age group of 21 that are married to some non-citizen can avail additional housing grants. The amount of grant may raise up to $40,000 for their first-ever resale flat.

Note that, this age criterion was brought down by this Saturday. As per earlier regulations, people crossing the age barrier of 35 were eligible to avail Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG). This Non-Citizen Spouse scheme was applicable to Singaporeans who purchased a resale flat and their life partner was not a permanent resident or citizen of Singapore.

Read more

Any resident of Singapore, if asked to name one location that stands as the stalwart of advanced manufacturing in the country, the Jurong Innovation District will be the obvious answer. On October 22nd, Deputy PM, Mr Heng Swee Keat claimed that it is time now, it is almost time for the district to welcome 6 new members within the next three years whose calibre range from being recognized as research institutions and industry giants.

Read more

The first thing that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said regarding the new technologies being brought about in the field of transport is that Singapore will slowly adapt them and avoid rushing into the changes. According to him, the country’s objective is to browse through and get acquainted with an array of technological recourses before settling for a few efficient solutions that are based on well-thought calculations.

Read more

From past few months, the sale of Housing Board Resale flats as on its peak; but it faced considerable decline in the previous month. Probably, it happened due to continues fall in the prices.

Stats revealed by real estate portal SRX property says that almost 1875 flats were sold, but it is 4.9% lesser sale value as compared to the August.

If the value is compared to the sales closed in the same month previous year, it shows a considerable decay of 6.3%.

The four-room flats sold by the last month were able to make up 39.6% whereas the five-room flats lead to 24.9% value. Other than this, the exclusive flats were able to make up 7.6%- and three-room flats limited to 25.7% only.

When compared to the stats presented in the month of August, the resale flat prices came down by almost 0.2%. However, they reported a rise of 0.1% as compared to the previous year.

The overall resale flat prices for the third quarter declined by 0.1% this year, and the trend was downward right from the starting phase of the year.

If we compare the sales figure with the peak market performance of April 2013, the overall price decay is 14.1%. For the mature estates, the price came down by 1.2%; whereas, for non-mature estates, it rose by almost 0.9%.

A four-room unit at the famous The Pinnacle@Duxton point was sold on the highest price of $1 million in the previous month. Also, a 34 years old, well designed executive maisonette at Bishan was also sold with the same price tag.

The forecasts made by SRX reveals that almost 2107 flats will join the HBD resale market in the coming three months. They recently completed the occupation period of a minimum of five years.

The calculative observations reveal that people are not willing to spend more than the estimated market value for any of these listed flats. SRX data also reveals that the overall median transaction or the TOX value was negative $2000 by the previous month.

Note that, median TOX value is a measure of whether people are underpaying or overpaying; the first case is shown by negative TOX value and the later with positive values.

The HBD exclusive flats reported a value of $6000 in the previous month, and it is observed to be negative median TOX. On the other side, the negative median TOX values for four-room and three-room flats was observed to be $1000 and $2500. Similarly, the five-room flats reported the positive median TOX value of $1000.

Christine Sun, the head of research and consultancy at Orange Tee & Tie, said that the fall in the sales volume from the month of August to September id basically a seasonal decline. She also added that more than 15000 resale flats were sold during the first eight months of 2019 and it is believed that the overall resale transactions of this year will reach the estimated count of 22000 to 24000.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/fewer-hdb-resale-flats-sold-last-month-as-prices-continue-to-slide

Latest new launch in Singapore

• Neu at Novena
• Sengkang Grand Residences

Most Competitive Economy In The World – Singapore

If we look at the recently updated global league table, Singapore has become one of the most competitive economies in the entire world. While competing with 141 different countries, it scored 84.8 points out of 100 and stood ahead of the United States as well. Note that, as per previous year’s stats, the US scored 83.7 to top the list.

Read more

The upcoming HDB estates at Bidadari and Tengah will be having some of its landscape furniture and architectural features being printed by a 3D printer. This is the first time that the government is utilizing 3D printing for building the smaller features within a HDB estate.

Currently, the HDB Centre of Building Research is where the authority kept the 3D printer and has its concrete printing done. The printer is able to produce components that is up to 3.8m high and measures 9m by 3.5m. This printer is by far, the biggest 3D concrete printer in the entire South-East Asia. The total price of the printer and its installation expenses cost up to $900k.

At the moment, HDB is only printing the architectural features or landscape fittings such as the benches and pavilions in the communal areas. However, the authority is hoping that 3D concrete printing technology, could in the long run, be able to print high-rise HDB buildings. Studies and testings are still ongoing to see if the 3D printed buildings will be able to sustain in our climate.

There are several advantages of using 3D printing for housing and these include time and cost saving. With 3D printing, shorter time and lesser labour-intensive construction are required. Thus, lesser cost are involved as well. For instance, the 3D printer took approximately 13hours to print out a room with dimensions, 3.6m by 2.75m by 2.75 m. After printing out the structure, steel reinforcement bars, windows and door are manually fitted into it and the whole process took approximately 6 days to be completed. However, if a similar structure were to be constructed manually through precast production, this could take more than two months to be done.

3D concrete printing also allows the designers and architects to have more flexibility in their designs which they might not be able to achieve via the conventional method. The conventional method is subject to more restrictions as they rely a lot on manual labour.

3D printing for buildings is rather common in countries such as Denmark and China, however it is still uncommon for 3D concrete printing to be done on buildings that are multi-storeys. This technology is rather new and is still in the researching phase. 

You can find out more about 3D printing from the link below

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/3d-printed-features-to-debut-in-tengah-bidadari-estates

Completed in 1994, Bishan Park Condo is a twenty-eight year old Singapore Condominium that has recently been released for en-bloc sales by its owners. This development is situated along Sin Ming Walk in the Bishan housing estate. The development is made up of five towers of 10 storey tall. Currently there are 320 residential apartments inside the development. The land of the development measures 268,796 sq ft in size and has a plot ratio of 2.1.

Read more

A total of sixty-eight luxurious Singapore condominiums were transacted at a price tag of more than $10 millions from January to August of 2019. This number is of the highest record ever since 2008.

Singapore, has long been regarded as a top spot among real estate investors due to our strong economy and stable political environment. It is no secret that rich property investors from our neighbouring countries or even country like China, are always attracted to getting a property in Singapore.

Read more

Introduction

In the second quarter of this financial year in Singapore, home buyers who are getting their first HDB flats likely to receive immense incentives. The changes in the incentive structure have been incorporated to attract more buyers in its fold. With this, first-time home buyers will enjoy the benefits of having grants that are higher and at the same time, there will be more flexibility when comes to selecting the size and location of their HDB flats.

The incentives for home buyers

The household income ceiling to acquire a new HDB flats directly from HDB has been increased. This amount was last raised in 2015.

Previously, the grants available for homebuyers were categorized into different kinds

Read more

Introduction

Businesses in real estate render highly lucrative returns given the incessant demands in housing sector on account of the ever increasing population numbers today. However, Singapore is presenting a different kind of scenario to view. Despite an upsurge in private property prices in the second quarter of this financial year, the take-up rates for houses remain low. This is a cause for worry which needs to be addressed according to Chia Ngiang Hong, president of the Real Estate Developers Association Singapore.

What does the statistics say? Read more