Buyer & Seller Must Know

While there was some kind of increase in the prices of private homes, the chances were not that significant from one quarter to another, until recently. 2018 brought along a lot of surprises, one of them being the increase of 3.9% recorded in the case of homes belonging to the private residential sector. According to the information released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, or URA, the estimated increase was of only 3.1%, no one expecting such a consistent increase. This is the most abrupt increase since 2010, the last time when prices grew in an unexpected manner, reaching a peak of 5.3%.

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One of the largest developers in Thailand, Sansiri, has announced one of their new luxury condos 98 Wireless just sold for $2.2 million. Word has it, the 25-story 98 Wireless is the finest luxury residential projects in all of Bangkok with absolutely no competition. 98 Wireless sits in the heart of the capital city surrounded by luxury malls, five-star hotels, and lush landscaping. Selling at $17,576 per square foot, making this residential skyscraper one of the most expensive properties in all of Bangkok.

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It is well-known the fact that the use of bicycles are encouraged in Singapore, as they are an eco-friendly mean of transportation, keeping the air clean, and helping people lead an active lifestyle. This is why the future developments will be required to offer a parking space dedicated to bicycles so that people will have a convenient area where they can keep their green two-wheeled transportation mean. The Land Transport Authority or LTA is responsible for the introduction of this new standard, in the attempt of the authorities to encourage a cleaner atmosphere in Singapore. The new changes were announced on the 7th of May, through the URA circular.

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It is not a secret that the prices of apartments in Hong Kong reached values that are hard to meet by most investors these days, due to the impressive demand. But, what can one do if he or she has some money for investments? Apparently, the best move at the moment is to put money in parking lots.

How come this is such a good choice?

Well, only in the past year and a half, the value of parking lots doubled. Esther Fan, a woman that owns two parking lots in an old residential neighborhood enjoyed an increase of almost HK$90,000, which means US$272,630, as her lots jumped from HK$720,000 to the incredible value of HK$1.6 million.

If we are to look at these numbers, it is easier to see that it is more profitable to invest in parking lots, as the speed at which their value increases is considerably faster than the increase recorded by apartments. In the case of apartments, it took more than 7 years for them to reach a value growth of 120%, as the Centaline Property Agency showed through the data it released. Thus, if between 2010 and 2017, the prices of homes doubled in Hong Kong, the prices of parking lots tripled during the same period, especially those placed in residential areas. But, in spite of the fact that apartments are quite expensive in Hong Kong, their value never exceeds a growth of 100% during a whole year. When it comes to parking lots, that’s an entirely different story, as their increase in value easily goes beyond 100% in one year, as Mrs. Fan noticed.

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Singapore is a small country but its population is quite large as compared to the square foot area of the country. The government has been constantly accommodating people by providing them with basic necessities of life, which also includes housing facilities.

Sotheby’s checked on the current government land sales (GLS) local plots and additionally checked those fruitful aggregate deals and made a rough estimation of a time of nine to a year for the GLS locations to get all arranging endorsements preliminary to being launched and available to be purchased. They also estimated a time frame of 15 to year and a half for the aggregate purchasing of sites

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According to the CSC land group, it seems that there was a very powerful response when the Twin VEW apartments launched recently. This massive new launch condominium has 520 apartments, and the buyers already got 442 of them, including 4/6 of the penthouses. Read more

Holland Tower is one of the most interesting collective sale launches in recent months. The interesting thing is that this 19 unit condominium found right near the Holland Village is set to sell and the reserve price is around S$65 million.

The establishment occupies a land of around 21871 square feet. It’s set to bring in a great set of opportunities for the neighboring regions, and it’s by far one of the more interesting things that you can check out right now.

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It is both a good and bad news for Singapore’s economy as the price of private homes (both new launch and resale condo) witnessed a surge while it saw a decline in HBD resale homes in the first quarter of the year 2018. This is the highest rise recorded since 2010. Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Housing Board released this data yesterday.

Shedding light on the public property market, it can be safe to say that it remained on the lower side. Similar to this year, the HDB resale prices also showed a decline last year as well. The decrease in price registered last year was 1.5%.

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The Economic Development Board has stated that the manufacturing industry in Singapore is significantly up 59% from last year. There is an increase in production year-over-year which investors use to gauge an industry’s performance during a certain period of time.

There are other industries in Singapore that have also shown respectable growth including the following:

Precision engineering production increased 10.5% in comparison to last year. Due to the increased growth in components and modules, specifically the production of optical and cable merchandise and products rising to 31.1%. Read more

It is well-known the fact that the authorities in Singapore are looking to bring the communities on this island even closer to each other, by strengthening the bonds and relationships of people that live in them. As part of this strategy, the Housing Board decided to create new and exciting playgrounds in various neighborhoods, with the purpose of giving children adequate outdoor spaces while bringing families together and paying an homage to the neighborhoods’ heritage.

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Assets Company (AssetsCo) has been given a new tender submission deadline for the high-speed rail project that connects Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The previous date for bids and tender submissions was June 29 but it was extended to December 28, 2018 during a press statement on April 19, 2018.

Rama Venkta (MD, SG HSR) and Mohd Nur Ismal Mohammed Kamal (CEO, MyHSR Corp) made this known during their statement that the purpose of this was to receive “high-quality and competitive proposals from all the bidders” for the high-speed rail express service.

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More good signs that the property market in Singapore is on the up, comes from recent statistics showing that the number of foreign investors returning to these shores and buying property is increasing.
On average the number of transactions carried out by foreigners every year, is approximately 2,200. The number of annual transactions rose to as high as 3,600 between 2010 and 2013, but then largely due to the introduction of the 15% ABSD in 2012, that number has been falling. 2017 saw around 1,600.

Percentage wise, the number of foreign purchases last year was 5.6% compared to an average of 8.7%.
Evidence suggests that the trend is being reversed however. The URA released figures showing that the number of caveats lodged by foreigners in the first half of 2017 increased by almost 50% from the same period a year earlier. This is backed up by Eli Lee, the head of strategy at the Bank of Singapore. Mr Lee stated he expected foreign buyers to return in numbers to give a further boost to the property market that has seen definite improvement of late. Those improvements have been largely fuelled by an upturn in domestic transactions. An increase by foreign investors will help to push through that momentum, especially in the higher value end of the market.

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The Garden was sold for $906.9 million to the joint establishment of MCL Land and Yanlord Land Group. This year, it was the 2^nd biggest joint purchase. Freehold Condo, Tulip Garden consisted of maisonettes and 162 apartments along with two shops. It is conveniently located in the District 10, near the Good Class Bungalow area and Holland Village.

The biggest joint sale of the year was Pacific Mansion situated in River Valley. This estate was purchased by Hong Realty, GuocoLand, and Intrepid Investments. They paid total $980 million for the purchase of this land.

Moreover, this was the 4^th try to sell the Tulip Garden. The estate was first sold in 2007 to the group by Bravo Building Construction. Unfortunately, the group canceled the purchase after they were unable to raise the funds. This is was because of the financial crisis. As a result of this, the company lost their deposit of $25.8 million as the owners of Tulip Garden kept the amount.

This real estate project was completed in the year 1985 and has a total area of 316, 708 sq. ft. The buyers of this estate have paid 20 .4% more than the reserve price of $753 million. According to reports, the owners were able to gain $100,000. It is believed that this time the process will be much smoother than the previous times.

According to the managing a director of Colliers International, this is a great opportunity for the redevelopment. Even after having sale deals in the Holland Road zone, the offer of Tulip Garden was attractive to let go. The key component that makes Tulip Garden attractive is its location.

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More and more condominium owners are starting to see the benefits of sharing their homes and developers have started to respond, allowing residents to share their property. Home sharing for a short period of time is a great opportunity for owners and travelers alike. People in Singapore have been waiting a long time for home sharing to be approved by URA. Home sharing is intended for a short period of time for residential properties but only with the consent of the owner. Also, any property, opting into this plan, must be registered.

With their proposed documents, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will analyze how home sharing can work for condos and other common properties. Other aspects could include the need for fire safety regulations, what part management committees will play and how they will govern platform operators.

Regarding condos, the URA said that the owners must hold the majority of the shared property value. Once endorsed, the home share will remain active for 2 years and then a renewal process will kick in again. That said, if at any time less than 80% of owners agree to home sharing, there will be no further renewals.

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The series of en bloc sales continue in Singapore, with the recent sale of Asia Gardens, a rather impressive property on the Everton Road. Located very close to the Spottiswoode Park, the development that has no less than 23 stories, was just sold for the amount of $343 million. A consortium led by Sustained Land was the winning bidder of this collective sale. Thus, the owners of the units in Asia Gardens, 80 in total, should expect receiving sums situated between $3.476 million and $7.73 million for each unit, once the sale completes.

When the tender for this particular property was made public in March, the minimum asking price for Asia Gardens was of $338 million. As it is more than obvious, the development got sold for a higher sum than the initial request of the owners. The property has a surface of 72,059 sq. ft. and was completed back in the 80s. Due to the development baseline that is rather high for Asia Gardens, the new owners of the property won’t have to pay a development charge for it. This means that the value per square foot per plot ratio is $1,565, which also includes a balcony area that represents a 10% bonus.

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