News At A Glance

Qingjian Realty will be launching a new development in Shunfu Road in what is probably the first major property launch since the cooling measures were announced in July.  The site of the development, JadeScape, is the site of the former HUDC Shunfu Ville in Bishan. Besides featuring fully integrated smart home technologies and an intelligent estate monitoring system, another one of the key attributes that this new condominium feature are 63 one-bedroom units specially catered for older residents who are into active ageing. The one-bedroom units will have smart technology and physical facilitie...

Private-sector economists have maintained their growth forecast for the Singapore economy at 3.2%, based on the latest quarterly survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This forecast falls within the Singapore Government’s estimates of 2.5% and 3.5% for the full-year Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Official data released in August showed the GDP for 2Q 2018 performing slightly better than expected at 3.9% compared to one year ago. There are some bright spots in the economy – manufacturing is expected to grow at 7.6% after a good performance of 10.2% growth in 2Q 2018. In the accommo...

A survey conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS) found that developer sentiment has dampened significantly since the new cooling measures were announced on 5 July 2018. Understandably, outlook for the prime residential and suburban residential sectors were affected most; while office, business park/hi-tech space and hotel/serviced apartment were relatively unaffected. NUS and REDAS conducted a follow-up survey after the cooling measures were announced, to follow a report they had completed earlier which captured d...

The future of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) is finally clear. On 5 September 2018, Singapore and Malaysia officially signed an agreement to defer the HSR project for about two years. However, with this delay, the operations of the HSR will be pushed back by four years from the original target of December 2026 to January 2031. The additional delay is because both countries would need additional time to implement the project after resuming it, such as calling for new tenders etc. The agreement between the two nations did include a clause to say that if the HSR has not resume c...

In the latest Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Liveability Index, an annual global survey of liveable cities, Vienna has displaced Melbourne as the most liveable city, a title which the latter has owned for seven years consecutively. It is also the first time a European city has topped the rankings of the EIU annual survey. EIU’s liveability rating, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, assigns scores to 140 cities based on political and social stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Vienna and Melbourne scored maximum points in the...

While much has been said of the en bloc fever, the fact is that less than a third of collective sales sites have been sold so far this year. In other words, more than 30 collective sale sites failed to secure buyers since January. With the property cooling measures in place since July 2018, there has also been no new collective sales closed. To some, this means that the current en bloc “fever” has ended, after lasting about two years beginning with the sale of former Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estate Shunfu Ville. The current fever lasted for a shorter period of two years in...

Singapore’s economy has shown a strong performance in the first half of this year, clocking in a growth of 4.5 per cent in the first quarter and 3.9 per cent in the second quarter. The outcome is an overall result of 4.2 per cent growth y-o-y for the first half of 2018. Singapore’s economic growth is expected to slow down in the second half of 2018, with some concerns on global trade tensions as a result of tariffs announced by the United States of America on some of its trade partners such as Turkey as well as China, which has in turn announced its own measures to tax goods from the United St...

In the second quarter of 2018, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has granted provisional permission for several residential projects, including two large projects on sites that were sold through collective sales. Each of the two projects will have more than 1,000 units –Sim Lian got the nod to develop a 2,225-unit condo on the Tampines Court site, while Kingsford Huray Development got the approval to develop a 1,882-unit (comprising 1,863 apartments and 19 strata terrace houses) project on the Normanton Park site near Science Park and Kent Ridge Park. URA also granted provisional permiss...

Slower sales at some projects after the July surprise announcement of new cooling measures are causing the market to expect that the new private property projects will be launched at slightly lower prices. In addition, discounts of up to 5 per cent from expected launch prices and other incentives are being offered to entice buyers in the wake of the higher Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates and tighter loan limits. Some projects are also holding back their next phase of sales, and even some previews have been postponed. Take-up rates in recent launches, such as Affinity in Serang...

Owners of freehold Windy Heights in the Kembangan area are seeking to reduce the reserve price by over S$50 million in a bid to go for collective sale. This come after its earlier bid in April 2018 which was unsuccessful. The reserve price in the previous attempt was S$806.2 million, but now the price may drop by 6.97 per cent to S$750 million. At the same time, Fragrant Gardens located off Upper Paya Lebar Road is the latest to launch a tender for collective sales with a S$65 million reserve price, it works out to S$1,204 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), compared to the S$1,325 for S...