News At A Glance

In its second attempt at collective sale, Flynn Park successfully found a buyer in the joint venture between Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments. Based on the winning bid of $371 mil, the land rate works out to be $1,355 psf/plot ratio for the 208,443 sq ft site with a plot ratio of 1.4. The price was marginally higher than the reserve price of $365 mil, and also higher than the $363.5 mil set for the first attempt in June 2018. Built on elevated ground, the site can be redeveloped into a new condominium with around 271 units. It is about 350m from the Pasir Panjang MRT station and is...

The recent winding up of Greatearth Corporation and Greatearth Construction and their affiliated companies showed the severity of the headwinds that have been plaguing the construction sector. Since the pandemic started, construction companies have seen work disrupted by the circuit breaker as well as stringent safe-distancing measures at worksites. The biggest challenge is probably the tighter border controls which have restricted the flow of foreign workers and resulted in a manpower shortage. Companies have had to hike salaries to retain their existing workers. Workers have to be teste...

The government has increased the development charge (DC) rates for landed by 6.3 per cent and 10.9 per cent for non-landed residential use groups on the average. This is the second consecutive increase for both groups, after a milder 1.5 per cent rise for landed and 0.3 per cent rise for non-landed residential use starting March 1. The steeper revision was likely prompted by the brisk private home sales with new price points in certain locations, as well as bullish top bids in recent government land sales (GLS). The higher residential DC rates will add to the development costs of new cond...

From the COVID-19 outbreak in migrant worker dormitories last year to disruptions in the supply chain for construction materials and restrictions on the entry of foreign labour, the ongoing pandemic has impacted the supply of both public and private housing. With demand remaining strong and outstripping supply, it is unsurprising that home prices have been hiking up throughout the pandemic period. Year-on-year, flash estimates by HDB showed that resale flat prices have risen by 10.8% as at Q2 2021 while URA ‘s data showed that private home prices climbed by 7.3% over the same period. ...

The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced on 10 June 2021 that under its H2 2021 Government land Sales (GLS) Programme, it will offer land that can potentially yield about 2,000 private homes (including executive condominium or EC units) on the Confirmed List. This is an increase of almost 25% per cent from 1,605 units for the H1 2021 GLS Programme. MND said it decided to increase the supply moderately because even though the unsold inventory of private housing units has declined amidst strong demand, the economy is still recovering from the recession in 2020.  There are c...

Commuters in Woodlands can now enjoy a smoother and more comfortable journey with the opening of the Woodlands Integrated Transport Hub (ITH) on 13 June 2021. The ITH – a term for fully air-conditioned bus interchanges linked to MRT stations and nearby shopping malls – connects a new bus interchange below Causeway Point shopping mall with Woodlands MRT station, which serves the North-South Line and Thomson-East Coast Line. The transport hub, which will be managed by SMRT Buses, is the 11th such hub in Singapore. With a total area of 41,500 sq m, it is also the larges...

When a number of Singapore banks began trimming office space towards the end of 2020, it seemed to spell doom and gloom in the office leasing market. Surprisingly, firms from other industries have been quick to pounce on these prime commercial units.  Developers, institutional landlords and real estate investment trusts (Reits) realised they need not be overly concerned, and began to welcome the new mix of tenants. At the Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) Tower 1, tech firms from the US, China and Singapore are among those who have expressed “very strong interest” i...

A circular from the Urban and Redevelopment Authority (URA) to property developers stated that the maximum capacity for project show galleries and the showflats within, will be based on a distance of 16 sqm per person, instead of the existing 10 sqm per person. The maximum number of persons in each group viewing the sales gallery will be reduced from the existing five to just two, including visitor, sales person or the developer’s staff. URA encouraged developers to implement the revised SMM as soon as possible rather than wait for the new measures to come into effect. TraceTogether-...

More affluent families have flocked to Singapore as a base to park their wealth in the midst of a worldwide pandemic in 2020. Data analysis firm Handshakes estimates that 221 single and multi-family offices opened in Singapore in 2020. This compares with 129 in 2019, and 22 in 2018. These figures were derived by studying data from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) which capture flows from outside of Singapore. The proportion of foreign directorships of these newly set up family offices has been rising gradually over the years from 48.6% in 2018 to 51.6% in 2019 to 55% in...

The strong private residential sales momentum of 2020 has carried over to 2021. Furthermore, preliminary estimates of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) residential price index in 2020 showed that private home prices have risen by 2.9% over the fourth quarter of 2020. Should the sales momentum continue, prices are expected to increase at a firmer pace this year. With more than 3,000 new private sales in the first quarter of 2021, developers whose projects are gradually selling down have begun sourcing to replenish their land banks. The upcoming Government Land Sales (GLS) tender...