News At A Glance

Singapore’s Ministry of National Development has revised the development charge (DC) rates for the period 1 September 2019 to 29 February 2020. Muted adjustments were made to the DC rates for commercial use – a rise of 1.7% across 59 sectors, smaller than the 9.8% increment in March. Rates for non-landed residential use were reduced by 0.3%, compared to a 5.5% cut in March. The main changes are: 1. Use Group A (Commercial) – increased by average of 1.7%. 59 out of the 118 sectors have increases in DC rates ranging from 3% to 7%. The largest increase of 7% applies to the following sectors...

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has picked East Kalimantan as the location for Indonesia’s new capital in order to relieve the strain on Jakarta. The burden on Java Island, where Jakarta is, has been mounting, as it is home to 150 million people, or 54 per cent of Indonesia’s population, and accounts for 58 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Shifting the capital outside Java would help make future economic development more equitable, said President Widodo. The shift will cost billions of dollars and will take several years. Under the relocation plan, Jakarta will b...

It has been reported that Hong Kong investors have invested a total of US$1.4 billion into Singapore’s real estate in the first six months of 2019. This amount is more than a quarter of the total outbound real estate investment from Hong Kong – a sum of US$5.2 million – for the period. This means that Singapore is the top destination for Hong Kong investors. The figure, though, reflected a drop of 31 per cent in total outbound investment overseas year on year. It should be noted these investments largely happened even before the on-going protests which have b...

There have been reports that signal uncertainty and slower growth in the global economy. The international Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that the world’s economy will grow by around 3.3 per cent in 2019 and 3.6 in 2020. That is slower than the 20-year average of 3.8 per cent per annum.  In the Asia-Pacific region, exports fell year-on-year in the first half of 2019, after growing by 10 per cent in 2018. This is the first time that exports have fallen year-on-year. Growth in Southeast Asia is also expected to grow at a slower rate of 4.8 per cent, down from 5.3 per cent last year....

According to data recently released by real estate portal SRX Property, resale prices of condominiums in Singapore dipped in July for the second consecutive month. Volume of sales, on the other hand, surged by almost one-third. Overall, resale prices of condominiums were down 0.5 per cent in July from the previous month. In June, there was also 0.4 per cent decline from the peak in May, which ended an upward trend that had lasted four months. Prices in the city fringes, or rest of central region (RCR), posted a drop of 1.1 per cent in July, while prices in the outside central region (OCR...

Singapore is making headways into the development of new technology that would change the way people move around in the future. British billionaire James Dyson has moved his company’s automotive manufacturing headquarters from Wiltshire, England to Singapore and there may be an electric vehicle (EV) “made-in-Singapore” as soon as 2021. Another realm that Singapore has made a new breakthrough is the driverless vehicle or autonomous vehicle. Starting from 26 August, Singapore’s Sentosa Island will have a free on-demand driverless shuttle bus. This trial service was launched after conductin...

According to reports, the uncertainties of the UK’s departure from the European Union (EU) has not totally affected UK’s residential property sector.  Total investment volumes in the U.K.’s multifamily sector rose by more than 150% to 6.8 billion euros (US$7.6 billion) in 2018. London led the charge with investment volume nearly doubling to 2 billion euros compared to 2017, and became the fourth largest European city for multifamily investment, behind Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris. Investment in European multifamily properties rose by 40 per cent to 56 billion euros in 2018. The market ha...

With the growing tension of the trade war between the United States and China, as well as the unprecedented level of street protests and public unrest in Hong Kong, demand for residential property has been impacted, causing the city’s inventory of unsold residential property to reach 10,000 at the end of the second quarter, which is 1,000 more than at the end of March, and also the highest number in more than a decade.  The expanding stock underscores a proposal by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to tax developers to bring housing supply in line with demand and help rein in p...

New Zealand has, since October 2018, banned foreigners from buying residential property. The ban was part of a crackdown on offshore speculators who the government under Prime Minister Jacinda Arden says are partly to blame for spiralling house prices and making property unattainable for many young Kiwis. However, citizens from Singapore and Australia are exempt from the rules as a result of existing trade agreements. Foreigners with New Zealand residency status will also be able to purchase homes. Those foreigners who already own homes in the country won’t be affected, and overseas buyers...

After seven years of growth, the combined wealth of millionaires around the world dropped in 2018 by 3 per cent or just about US$2 trillion to the current figure of just slightly more than US$68 trillion. The number of millionaires – defined as having investable assets of US$1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables – also decreased 0.3 per cent to 18 million last year. According to the latest World Wealth Report released by Capgemini, a Paris-based consultancy and technology services firm, the large decrease in wealth was largely dr...