Exclusive Living In Singapore
Right after the cooling measures on condominium prices that were observed in the month of July, Qingjian Realty has started its work on the Shunfu road. Professionals are designing it with an intelligent estate monitoring system and fully integrated technologies to make it work as a smart home. The developers of this Singapore Condo are planning to set per square foot average price somewhere around $1700.
All good things come to an end, and there is mounting evidence that the latest bout of en bloc fever is drawing to an end. The current cycle of en bloc sales has so far lasted approximately two years, compared to the last one which ran from 2005 to 2007 and continued for three years, so if it is declining it could be indicative of the state of the property market in general.
There’s no secret that online shopping gained a lot of terrain in past years, offering people the chance to find more competitive prices than in brick-and-mortar stores and the comfort of receiving them at home. But, in spite of all these, the Orchard Road shops are still going strong. Instead of facing shortages, the only thing that shrunk in recent times is the available vacancy rates. According to CBRE, the vacancy rates of the Orchard Road shops dropped to 5.6% in the second quarter, which is the lowest rate in the last fourteen quarters. At Q2 of 2016, the rate was then high at 9.3%.
Almost a month ago, some cooling measures were taken to bring down property prices. Ever since, only less than a third of the sale sites have been sold. According to a property analyst, this indicates that the en bloc enthusiasm is over among buyers.
Huttons Asia, Colliers, and Savills are three real estate agencies that reported the lack of sales. There are 30 sale sites among these three agencies combined that have failed to be sold since January of this year.
Ever since the High Speed Rail (HSR) link between Singapore and KL was announced at the back end of 2016, the government, not to mention the sales and marketing departments of the developers in Jurong have been telling us what an incredible impact it will have on the area. Now that the project has been postponed (the rail link has been shelved, not knocked on the head permanently) there is understandable concern by both developers and those who have recently purchased or are thinking of purchasing properties in the area. Are their worries justified? Is there more to investing in Jurong than just the HSR?
Kuala Lumpur to Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) has been under discussion for a while now. On August 11, Malaysia’s Economic Affairs Minister met with the representatives of Singaporean government. The detailed report mentioning the discussion of the meeting will be presented to the Malaysian government within this week. The subject of the meeting was finding solutions of the current HSR issues.
The Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, wrote a letter on 23 July inviting for this discussion. The Singaporean government accepted the invitation hence the meeting of August 11.
Private properties offered for rent in the Airbnb-style, meaning that people can choose to rent them on short terms like a few days or weeks, are quite popular. This enables people not just to visit various parts of the world at smaller prices, but also to get a better feel for the local atmosphere of each place they visit. Thus, the URA wants to make things easier by setting a new rule for this type of rental services. So, according to the new proposal made by the URA recently, concerning short-term stays in rented private units, owners can do so only if the owners of a development reach an agreement in a proportion of 80% the allowance of this kind of rentals. In other words, Airbnb-style rentals can be made in a development only with the consent of most owners and if the development is registered for such a purpose.
Top banks in Hong Kong are now raising their mortgage rates and this, in turn, is posing pressure on borrowers. Impact of this hike can be observed in terms of the slowdown in the most expensive and desirable property markets around the world.
Hang Seng Bank, Bank of China and HSBC Holdings recently said that the new mortgage rates would be implemented from coming Monday and the standard chartered announced the same move for Tuesday. Note that, generally mortgages in Hong Kong are either related to prime rate and interbank offered rate of Hong Kong.
According to the latest developments, it seems that around 28 residential units in Tiong Bahru will be converted into residential homes with commercial shops on the ground floor.
The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) are looking to convert 28 of the residential units to retail shops. The change is designed to offer transparency for the commercial use and it’s also designed to serve the visitors and residents in a professional manner. Currently, the charming Tiong Bahru estate hosts 800 residential homes and 120 commercial businesses.
The Changi Airport Terminal 4 tries to make it easier for parents to spend their time at the airport. And they added a new playground to make the process simpler and easier than ever before for all kids. The new structure also has a name, it’s called Chandelier and it has around 10 KM of rope, it’s also supported by around 15 tons of steel too. It seems to admit up to 50 people at a time.
The High Speed Rail from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore was quite uncertain, however the government has now acquired the land that you can find the Raffles Country Club (RCC) on right now. According to the government, the Raffles Country Club will be the second one that will be removed in order to bring the High Speed Rail. Other than this, the Cross-Island Line (CRL) is also one of the reasons that the government acquire the RCC. The site will be the depot for the CRL in the west of Singapore.
According to the plan of the Housing and Development Board, until the second quarter of 2020 more than 2400 blocks found in the administration of the board will benefit from green solar energy. This is possible due to the fact that HDB just picked the new winner for its solar leasing tender, the third of this kind. Thus, under the SolarNova programme, SembCorp Solar Singapore Pte. Ltd and Kurihara Kogyo Co., Ltd (Consortium) will make sure that the selected buildings will have green energy coming from solar photovoltaic panels. The majority of the buildings included in this program will residential blocks, more precisely a number of 848, but there will be some government sites as well that will get solar energy, about 27 of them.
The biggest disadvantage of living in an urban area is, in most cities of the world, the lack of green spaces. It is true that cities have parks, but let’s face it, they don’t bring too many benefits, except for those that actually live next to the parks. In Singapore, things enjoy a different approach for years, as greenery was part of the city’s living areas and this part is only going to get better in the future. According to the Housing and Development Board, the future towns of Singapore will be even greener, providing an enhanced quality of life and the chance for a better health for its inhabitants.
Analysts report that, as a response to latest property measures, developers may cut down the prices by 10% for all new launches. While downgrading stock ratings, many developers have already reduced the average selling prices by 5 to 10%; however, they also believe that it is too early for developers to decay pricings for their projects.
Derrick Heng, a property analyst, after reducing the price by 5 to 10% in his projections revealed that although they are expecting single-digitmoderation in earnings before interest and tax margins for most properties, still, no developer is losing money with current reductions. Derek Tan, DBS Bank Analyst on the other side said that it is important for all developers to reduce the prices by at least 5% to maintain the lower loan to value limits and higher additional buyer’s stamp duty. Tan also included that although these potential write-offs on land value balance sheets do not show any near-term risk, however,if the sales momentum falters, it may emerge for few years ahead.
Note that, DBS Group Research has currently dropped its primary home sales forecast by 25 to 30% because, during post-cooling measures, the investors are believed to stay out of the market. A recent report shows thatDeutsche Bank also trimmed developers’ ASP estimates by 5 to 7% along with 10 to 30% reduction in transaction volumes for the year2018-19.
Now, there are two things of common interest; first, lowered ASP forecasts for all upcoming project launches and second, an analysisfor real drop of current transacted prices that will have a directimpact on price index considering all private residential transactions. Although, most property consultants do not find any clue for these happenings; still they have reduced the growth forecasts between 8 to 12 % for price index as compared to the previous range of 8 to 20%. It is important to mention that prices have already increased by 7.4% during the firsttwo quarters of the year. Presently, consultants are less optimistic about sale volumes as the estimates have changedfrom previous 8000-12600 units to 6000-9000 units.
Last week, Oxley disclosed that its estimated asset value exposure to Singapore residential market goes up to 20.6% of the overall outstanding gross development value of projects on a globallevel. Considering the cooling measures, even after adjusting the price expectations for few projects, Oxley is still looking for a 12 to 19% net margin on upcoming new launch condos.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/latest-curbs-could-see-developers-lower-prices-up-to-10
It has been brought before Parliament that aging, vacated schools can be turned into residential housing for elderly citizens. Many believe this would allow those who are aging to live in a residential environment and enjoy their later years.
These schools are large and therefore would be perfect for redevelopment for many housing units and common spaces for tenants and their guests to congregate. That said, there would be a significant cost to redevelop these schools into housing for the elderly. It has been argued that the cost of these renovated properties would be turned over to the tenants, making these projects quite affordable for developers.